French daily stated that Egypt had expressed an interest to Paris in acquiring conventionally powered Barracuda submarines that “Naval Group” was supposed to sell to Australia. Naval Group was supposed to construct 12 submarines for Australia. Canberra, however, cancelled it and established Australia, Great Britain and the United States (AUKUS alliance) to construct eight US / British nuclear-powered submarines. France called the new deal as Australia and US “stabbing" France and the French Defence industry.
Egypt is interested in those attack-class 4,500-tonne submarines. The paper states that the discussions were launched between France and Egypt more than twelve months ago. In 2011 and 2015, Egypt ordered four U209 submarines from German ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
Cairo is also considering buying a second hand
used aircraft carrier armed with twenty Rafale Marine aircraft.
Egypt knows these aircraft since it has had a fleet of 24 Rafales since 2015, with 30 ordered in May 2021. The Egyptian Air Force is the second biggest fleet in the world, after the French Air and Space Force, to operate Rafales.
