Egypt's new missile corvette heads back to Russia for crew training

摘要

The Russian Molnya-class missile corvette R-32 (832) was spotted transiting the Bosphorus into the Black Sea on 19 August: four days after the Egyptian Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced it had taken delivery of the vessel. While R-32 flew Russian and Egyptian flags during the opening of the Suez Canal expansion project on 6 August, as well as in the photographs the MoD released of the vessel docked at Alexandrian naval base, it was flying only the Russian ensign as it sailed through the Bosphorus. All the sailors seen standing on deck appeared to be Russians. The Egyptian MoD said in a 15 August statement that Russia had given the vessel to Egypt under the framework of the military co-operation that exists between the two countries in many areas. It added that the vessel had been delivered with anti-ship missiles that are the fastest of their kind in the world: an apparent reference to supersonic Moskit (SS-N-22 'Sunburn') missiles.