SHAH ALAM: Egypt and UAE look set to acquire the Russian’s Mistrals. Defense News is reporting that an UAE official confirming their interests in the amphibious ships although he stopped short from saying that the deal was final.
The Defense News article backed the story by quoting a Russian newspaper which stated that France had been given permission to sell the two LHDs to Egypt and UAE. The deal between France and Russia over the non-delivery of the two ships apparently gave Russia the right of first refusal over the eventual buyer.
According to the report ” A United Arab Emirates government official has confirmed to Defense News the government’s interest in acquiring one of two French Mistral-class amphibious assault ships originally ordered by Russia in 2011.
The contract for the two ships was terminated after Russia halted payments for the ships following the European sanctions imposed on the country for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis. France paid Russia more than US $1 billion in compensation for the non-delivery.
“Our interest in purchasing the ship is real, it fulfils the capability requirements for our forces,” the government source said. “The Mistral ships are in line with our equipment and capabilities.”
A report published Wednesday by Russian-language newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets quoted Russian military sources stating that Russia has given France the green light to sell the two helicopter carriers to Egypt and the UAE.”
According to unnamed Russian sources close to the deal quoted by Moskovsky Komsomolets, Egypt will purchase the ship with direct Russian financial support and would also have to commit to the purchase of a number of Russian Ka-52 helicopters.
“If this deal goes through, for Russia it is very advantageous, since the loan is in fact a trademark: a large consignment of helicopters will be based at our Russian defense industry, taxes will go into our budget, and the borrower does not receive the money but the product — helicopters made in Russia,” the source was quoted.
To read the story go Here
Will this latest development on the Mistral saga stopped all the wild speculation “on the Malaysian purchase”. Of course not. Its too juicy even if they were completely wrong.
I doubt it will topped even when Egypt and UAE signed the contracts for both ships. God knows what will come out if both countries backed out from the deal!
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (13)
both are our arab brothers countries, they are well known of being generous to us. that's part of the plan u see.. we are still in the game. One day they will donate the ships to us...yeah...finally..we are getting both ships..hahaha
Things happened, this whole Mistral saga really juices out. And for the Rafale deal? Seriously, I'd doubt we'd get anything out of the deal anyway since the 'Rojak Air Force' won't stop until we find another platform of aircraft due to political interest...
Oh, just went into Malaysian Insider's article (for the 1st time) regarding the Rafale deal. I read all the comments and guess what? Can't believe they all so 'buta pertahanan'.... It's like they'd even knew about the deal (LOL)
Mistrals at last will be bought by others, not us. Good for us, no more dreams for a Mistral as the MRSS. No we're back to square 1 where we have seen a few MRSS designs.
This may explain the planned purchases, but I have my reservations.
From 'The National' (UAE):
"Cairo Declaration”, [between Egypt-KSA] pledges increased military cooperation, including the formation of a joint Arab military force for interventions in regional crises,..." That and the Corps-sized 'Peninsula Shield Force' that's already in place.
Otherwise it's hard to see how the two countries, by themselves, are going to use the ships. HADR? That's a secondary function of LHDs.
Money-wise Egypt is broke but is spending like there's no tomorrow on defence equipment. It can't really properly operate a big LHD, not in hostile environments anyway. There's a big chance KSA is bankrolling this. It's not a major problem for UAE, a country where traffic police are equipped with Bugattis and Maseratis -- they can park their LHD in Dubai and operate it as a hotel for all they care (guests helicoptered in, of course).
Marhalim / azlan
On a different subject have u seen the "new" digital camo painted on the army combat vehicles? It doesnt seem to conceal or blend in with anything. Even the pioneers of the digipat dont use the same camo on their vehicles. 4 example the us army still uses the woodland type camo on the vehicles that is serving in europe. Other then the pla and the roc army i never seen the same aplication anywhere but still i could be wrong. Imo we better stick with the current harimau belang camo 4 our vehicles la guys. It looks more "garang" if u ask me
When do we get to send a couple of battalions to join the Army of the Defense of the Two Cities?
Reply
Not until they pony up the funds for the MRCA.
" It doesnt seem to conceal or blend in with anything."
Please provide the details of your evaluation. Most combat vehicles in the world are in one solid colour. You could say they "don't blend in with anything."
"Even the pioneers of the digipat dont use the same camo on their vehicles. "
When you're looking at a man's outline through a rifle sight, choice of uniform might affect the time to acquire and discern the area of the target against the cover and concealment he is hiding in.
When you're looking at a boxy, vehicle sized target, the colour might matter less.
Beyond LAW range, when your weapon sight displays in false colour or automatically acquires, it doesn't matter at all.
Any day now, the UAE cannot afford to take the whacking like they had in Maarid.
Am
Digipat 4 bdu i can understand. I have no problem with that. But even the us army are ditching their digipat 4 the newer multicam. What the us is doing is usually cnsidered up to date and in trend. What? are we going to ditch the current dgpat camo and revert to the old style pattern then? Please explain to me how the current large dgpat style pattern is better then the harimau belang?
The issue is wth the use of dgpat camo 4 the army vehicles. If i was not mistaken the dazzle pattern that was use in ww2 was to mask the direction of travel (i could be wrong).
Most combat vehicles are solid colour. Ur absolutely rght. 4 example desert tan colour are use 4 vehicles serving in the middle east. They blend well with their surrounding. Olive green or woodland style camo are use in forested areas. Grey were cmmnly use in build up areas 4 example the singaporean army cmbt vehcles.
The camo use on ours? Thats what i mean when i said they dont blend in wth anything. The pixiles pattern were supposedly hard to detect. Hmm
You should know the harimau belang has large black stripes. Black is being eliminated from uniforms for 2 reasons. First, it glows in night vision images. Second, when the wearer moves, black makes him more prominent to the naked eye. In the natural environment black is the colour of shadows. Shadows are not supposed to move.
"Grey were cmmnly use in build up areas 4 example the singaporean army cmbt vehcles."
No, they are olive drab. If you are implying Singapore is preparing to destroy itself by fighting in its own urban terrain, no.
The Singapore army does prepare for urban warfare but is unprepared for fighting in the kind of ultra dense and high rise urban terrain in Singapore, just like all armies in the world. Training in such terrain is costly, actually fighting in it is unaffordable to anyone.
Go search for their Murai Urban Training Facility and see what country it looks like. The buildings are 3 floors high at most.