Egypt's military strengthened by French warship, fighters

The inclusion of a French Mistral-class amphibious assault ship and Rafale fighter jets are expected to enhance Egypt's military strategic capabilities in the turmoil-stricken Middle East, Egyptian security and strategic experts say.

On Thursday, the Mistral-class warship, the first ever helicopter carrier to serve in Egypt's armed forces, left western France for its destination through the Mediterranean.

It is the first one of two French Mistral-class warships sold to Egypt in a deal signed in October 2015 after their sale to Russia was canceled by France over the Ukrainian crisis.

"The Mistral-class warship will add a military strategic advantage to Egypt," said Mohamed Kashkoush, professor of national security at Nasser Supreme Military Academy.

As an enhancement of Egypt's naval strength, the warship is expected to provide the Middle East country with a movable complete unit of armed forces to operate outside its waters and help promote Egyptian security in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, according to the expert.

The coming warship, named after Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, "can accommodate armored vehicles, armed forces, ammunition, a field hospital and as many as 900 troops in addition to helicopters," Kashkoush told Xinhua.

Egypt seeks to develop its military capabilities amid the ongoing turmoil in Middle East and increasing conflicts in fellow Arab states including Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan.

The Mistral-class warship will join the six new Rafale warplanes and the FREMM multi-mission frigate delivered by France last January as part of a 5.6-billion-U.S. dollar deal that includes a total of 24 Rafale fighter jets.

"The new fighter jets represent a massive addition to fleets of the Egyptian air forces," Egyptian military spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a previous statement.

In his comment on the arms deals with France, one of the top warship manufacturers in the world, Kashkoush said they showed Egyptian diversification of its arms sources in an effort to end a sole dependence on the United States that "would lead to either monopoly or pressure."

"The helicopter carrier represents a great promotion in the strength of Egyptian armed forces in coping with sharp changes and hostilities that have developed enormously in the region over the past few years," security expert and former military general Mahmoud Khalaf told Xinhua.

The expert stressed that the situation requires a quick response to new forms of threat, and the new warship "will give the Egyptian military a greater capability of movement and deployment in a way that provides utmost benefit for the Egyptian national security."

Among the threats, Egypt has been ridden by a wave of anti-government terror attacks since the military removed former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi from power in July 2013 and later blacklisted his Muslim Brotherhood group.

The attacks, mostly claimed by a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional group, killed hundreds of police and military servicemen, while in counter actions,the government army has been engaged in a massive security campaign in the Sinai Peninsula that have about 1,000 militants killed and a similar number of suspects arrested.

Khalaf commented the Mistral-class warship as "a strong deterrence to the enemies of Egypt and an addition of power to the country's ongoing anti-terrorism fight."

In the opinion of former Egyptian assistant navy commander Sherin Hassan, with the helicopter carrier, "the Egyptian navy will turn from a coastal navy into a blue water navy. " He expects that Egypt's recent armament policy would help free it from a reliance on naval missile launchers.

"This step conveys a message to countries in the region that Egypt's military capabilities are upgraded to a different strategic level," the naval expert told Xinhua.