France and the UAE have agreed on a contract for two Govind Corvettes

The French Naval Group was further successful in the warship market by selling another 2 corvettes of the Govind range. The buyer was the UAE and this contract is the finalization of President Macron's earlier announcements of November 2017.

Contract between the parties applies to the Govind 2500 type and includes an option to build an additional pair of units. The value of the contract is EUR 750 million, but if this option is used, it can be doubled. The UAE will be the fourth user of the ships of this week after 4 corvettes purchased Egypt, 6 frigate Malaysia and 3 corvettes Argentina. New corvettes are to be built in the Emirati shipyard Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company.

Their equipment and weapons will be different from those used on previously ordered ships. The fundamental differences are: the use of the Thales Tacticalos combat management system instead of Naval Group SETIS and the use of American guided anti-aircraft missile (Raytheon ESSM, which would be their first application on units built by Naval Group). The requirement to apply the chosen combat system was imposed by the contracting authority.

It also appears that on the corvettes of the Govind type it will be possible to use engines other than the MTU due to German reluctance to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The French offer defeated the competing projects offered by the Spanish Navantia (Avante 500), Dutch Damen (Damen 6110), French CMN (BR71 MkII), Italian Fincantieri (type Abu Dhabi) and Turkish Istanbul Naval Shipyard (MILGEM). The contract with the UAE has a historical importance for Naval Group due to being the first ever contract with this buyer.

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