France has delivered a second Mistral helicopter carrier to Egypt as part of a $1bn deal signed last year.

The Egyptian delegation took control of the vessel at a ceremony at the Atlantic coast port of Saint-Nazaire.

Egypt takes delivery of second French Mistral warship https://t.co/JQaZQqMMCi pic.twitter.com/oLX3k2eygN— Gulf News (@gulf_news) September 16, 2016


The two ships were originally built for sale to Russia, but the situation in Crimea led to the deal being quashed as Europe imposed sanctions on Moscow.

The French state backed shipbuilder DCNS had to strip out all the vessel’s information systems and instructions written in Cyrillic and replace them with English and Arabic text.

PDChina: #Egypt receives second French Mistral warshiphttps://t.co/8OqYOwp62c pic.twitter.com/wVCb2WmE5T— MEDIA COPAZ (@mediacopaz) September 16, 2016


The “Anwar El-Sadat”, formally the Vladivostok, will set sail from Saint-Nazaire early next week for joint exercises with the French navy before setting off for Alexandria.

The Mistral is capable of carrying vessels and tanks and will serve as a command centre for the Egyptian fleet.