Both Mistral ships that dock in the port of Saint-Nazaire will not be sold to the Russians, “punished” for their interference in Ukraine. Only France now finds itself with two military buildings on the arms that it has neither the means nor the will to purchase for its own navy.
We must therefore quickly find a buyer country. Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be interested according to the World Log information
The daily quoted an official diplomatic source. “Egypt and Saudi Arabia are desperate to buy both Mistral (…) The king of Saudi Arabia Salman wants to build a fleet worthy of the name in Egypt, which could have a regional force projection, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. “
A commitment which seems consistent from the two countries after the agreement of security and economic cooperation signed on 30 July between the Saudi Prince Salman Mohamad Bel and Egyptian President Abdelfattah al-Sissi, a prelude to the establishment of an Arab force common.
Egypt is already customer of the France defense. Last February, the sale to Egypt of 24 bursts and a FREMM multimission frigate had been finalized.
VIDEO. Mistral ships: France must find a buyer
“No difficulty in finding takers”
Without giving details on potential buyers, Francois Hollande said Thursday that the two Mistral ships “raise some demand from many countries, and there will be no difficulty in finding a buyer “. Jean-Yves le Drian, the Minister of Defense, went even further, while remaining vague: “a number of countries, there are many, have expressed their interest in these boats”
. Thursday, according to several sources, it was estimated that some countries had expressed their interest, Singapore, India, Canada and to a lesser extent Brazil and Egypt have already sent signals. “We will leave the future buyer communicate on the subject when serious negotiations have begun. It’s far too early for now, “says one to the defense.
The agreement reached with the Russians Wednesday night does not solve all problems. Even after the repayment to Russia made the two Mistral ships continue to cost money to France. Just the guarding of these boats cost 1 million euros per month. The expert Philippe Migault, specialist armaments questions Iris think tank, believes him Mistral maintenance costs between 1 and 5 million euros for the wide range.
The first vessel mistral, Vladivostok, was to be delivered in November 2014, so this is nine months it is docked. His twin brother, Sebastopol has been completed it in early June, two months ago.
Find a new buyer will not suffice. France must, before delivery to the new owner, de-Russify the two Mistral ships were built to meet the needs of Russian sailors. We’ll have to change all the human-machine interfaces that are in Cyrillic, telecom systems and all documentation.
The Russians will also get the equipment they have placed in these vessels. “The de-Russification should not be a big problem,” said Alain Coldefy, former Inspector General of the Armies. “The Russians are likely to delay things a bit, trying to steal whatever they can, up to technology, as usual. They say they can manufacture the boats themselves, but in fact they are very late. “
In February, the CEO of DCNS, the builder of ships, Hervé Guillou had still estimated the cost of adapting to a new customer could be several tens to several hundreds of millions of euros, according to his needs
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