Russia to Supply Egypt with Helicopters and Equipment Worth Over $1 bln to Equip Mistrals - TASS

"Egypt is planning to buy the Mistrals from France, and Russia will be a subcontractor, if you will, to supply the Mistrals with the equipment, without which the Mistrals, beg your pardon, are just tin cans. Naturally, Russia will provide the helicopters. The total value of cost of the hardware will certainly be more than $1 billion," Ivanov emphasized.

"Egypt is buying the Mistrals from France. After the deal has been closed, as business people say, I presume Egypt will sign a contract with Russia on the outfitting the Mistrals - both the ships proper and their helicopters - and thus will make a substantial contribution to the fight against international terrorism," the presidential chief of staff said.

At first, the two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships was designed for the Russian Navy, with the €1.12 billion contract to that effect signed by Moscow and Paris in June 2011. The first of the ships, the Vladivostok, was put afloat in October 2013 and was to be delivered to the Russian Navy in November 2014. At the 11th hour, France suspended its delivery indefinitely on the pretext of the situation in Ukraine. The other helicopter carrier, the Sevastopol, was planned for delivery in later 2015, but the delivery was suspended too. Moscow has been reimbursed for the cancellation of the contract.

Egypt ordered the helicopter carriers from France on October 10, 2015. The ships are due for delivery to the new customer in summer 2016 along with their assault craft.

The Russian-made equipment installed in the Mistrals includes a number of control and communications systems. In particular, the 67R radar identification ‘friend or foe’ system from the Kazan Electro-technical Plant. The system is versatile and can be mounted on ships of any rate. Also, the Sigma-E action information system from Russian manufacturer Mars, which can be used on ships varying in displacement, will be dismounted. The Mistrals built for the Russian Navy were furnished with the MTK-201ME electro-optical/TV system that is used in the onboard electronics suites of the sophisticated Project 20380 corvettes. The R-793-M Pritsep-M and R-794-1 Tsentavr-NM1 satellite communications radios, the 16-channel R-693 receiver and R-774SD1.1 very-long-frequency waveband receiver are to be dismounted from the Mistrals too. The systems equip first- and second-rate ships to provide communications and datalink.

The Kamov Ka-52K (NATO reporting name: Hokum-B) is a ship-based Ka-52 version developed, inter alia, for the Mistral-class ships. Unlike the baseline model, it features folding main rotor blades and stub wing panels. The helicopter is fitted with the reinforced landing gear. The Ka-52K carries the Kh-31A and Kh-35 antiship cruise missiles. Previously, the missiles of the types could be used only by the Mikoyan MiG-29K and MiG-29KUB (Fulcrum) carrierborne multirole fighters and the Sukhoi Su-30 (Flanker-C) family of aircraft.

Check out our technical datasheet to learn more about the Mistral class

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