Over the past 5 years, Egypt has been a key partner of the French defense industry, ordering a FREMM frigate, four Gowind2500 corvettes including 3 built on site, 24 Rafale and by purchasing the 2 BPC Mistrals that the French government refused to deliver to Russia following the annexation of Crimea.
But over the past year, the situation seems to be deteriorating between Paris and Cairo, and several contracts that seemed certain are now in the balance. Among them the order of 24 Rafale additional equipment equipped with SCALP missiles, which was on hold for a long time while awaiting the Bercy agreement, to finally be blocked by the Trump administration using the ITAR law on the export of sensitive materials, certain components of which equip French SCALP missiles.
Regarding the naval side, there was talk for Cairo of acquiring two new Gowind2500 corvettes and perhaps a new FREMM frigate, so as to benefit from two homogeneous fleets in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, each composed of a BPC of a FREMM and of 3 Gowind2500.
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