Egyptian-French naval exercises ‘Cleopatra 2017’ concludes

CAIRO – 13 July 2017: The joint naval exercises of Egypt and France in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea code-named ‘Cleopatra 2017’ concluded Wednesday after lasting for four days. The exercises included Egypt’s helicopter carriers ‘Gamal Abdel Nasser’ and ‘Anwar El-Sadat.’

The drills saw the participation of the amphibious assault ship/helicopter carrier of the French Mistral class.

The exercises comprised the implementation of sailing information, dealing with hostile targets with high efficiency through many marine units and vessels as well as practicing the inspection right on suspicious ships.

There have been exercises on all stages of collision in open water, securing the vessels participating in the training by air defense weapons, and marine landing of soldiers and equipment on the coast using the different landing craft utilities.

Soldiers participating were trained on signals for offensive and defensive situations and on dealing with emergency situations with high efficiency.

The drills aimed at honing skills and combat capabilities of naval forces of both sides.

The military exercises also came in light of the two sides' keenness to continue boosting bilateral relations at the military level.