Egypt, located in northeast Africa, is located in the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, bordering Palestine and Israel on the east side of the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea and Europe across the sea in the north. Such an important geographical location makes Egypt pay special attention to the development of the navy, and the development of the Egyptian navy in recent years can be described as an upstart, which has become the hegemon of the Middle East navy.
Countries of the Middle East
Missile boats of the Egyptian Navy that were converted from the Soviet Union to Britain and then to the United States
The Egyptian Navy, one of the first navies in the world to use guided-missile boats, imported Mosquito-class guided-missile boats from the Soviet Union as early as the 1960s, and on October 22, 1967, it set a record for sinking the Israeli Navy destroyer Eilat. However, in the Fourth Middle East War in 1973, the Egyptian Navy's Soviet missile boat forces were defeated in a duel with the Israeli Navy's missile boats, coupled with the Ethiopian-Soviet confrontation in the 1970s, which led the Egyptian Navy to seek advanced missile boats from Western countries.
The destroyer Eilat, which is constantly being mentioned
To compensate for the loss of missile boat troops in the Fourth Middle East War, the Egyptian Navy purchased six Ramadan-class missile boats from British shipyards in 1977, which were in service between 1981 and 1982. The main armament was an Ottomelera 76 mm naval gun and a Breda 40 mm rapid-fire gun, while the anti-ship side was four Italian Ottomach MK1 anti-ship missiles.
Egyptian Navy Ramadan-class missile boat
Fast forward to the mid-1990s, when the Egyptian Navy began a global tender for the next generation of small ships, defining the function of the new generation of small ships as coastal defense, requiring self-sustainment greater than 8 days, while having both sea target strike and short-range air defense capabilities. In the end, the Egyptian Navy abandoned the more powerful and inexpensive Russian improved poison spider missile boat program, and chose the Ambassador III missile boat program in Loma, USA, and built by VT Holt Ships, which is the Yit-class missile boat.
Egyptian Navy Yit-class missile boats
The sci-fi-like Izzat
The Izzat-class missile boat adopts a stealth design, the layout of the hull and superstructure is very simple and the angle is inverted, the bow adopts a similar design to the "Independence" class littoral combat ship, but the front part is cut off, the overall look is slightly sci-fi, and the Izzat class also adopts a multi-port side exhaust method to reduce the infrared signal of the whole ship.
| captain | 63 meters |
| Wide port | 10 meters |
| draft | 2 meters |
| Displacement | Full load displacement 780 tons |
Powered by 3 MTU diesel engines, the Izzat class has a maximum speed of 41 knots and a maximum endurance of 2,000 nautical miles/15 knots, capable of independently performing missions at sea for up to 8 days, essentially meeting the requirements of the Egyptian Navy. As a small ship, the Izzat class is even equipped with a combat command center.
In terms of armament, the Izzat-class missile boats also meet the needs of the Egyptian Navy's short-range air defense plus sea strike capabilities, the main gun is an Ottomella 76 mm naval gun designed for stealth turrets, the short-range air defense is a "Hiram" 21 combined short-range air defense missile launcher and a US-made dense array close defense gun, the anti-ship side is two quad harpoon anti-ship missiles, and two 7.62 mm M60 machine guns for low-intensity maritime patrol missions.
The price of the expensive Izart
A total of four Yizat-class missile boats were commissioned, with the first Izzat launched and delivered on 25 October 2011, the second Zachary delivered in December 2013, and the remaining two Fahmy and Gad in 2014. The most amazing thing is the price of the Yitzat-class missile boat, which by the time of final delivery, the unit price has soared to $320 million, which is a sky-high price of missile boats.