The Egyptian Government yesterday signed a contract for the immediate delivery of three additional frigates from the British Navy, thus bringing the Cairo Government purchases within four weeks up to a total of six warships, three of which have already been delivered to the Egyptian Navy.
The contract provides for the delivery of three frigates of the “river class.” These ships were built in the 1941-43 period and they have been in the British Naval reserve since the war’s end. They have slightly less armament than the first three frigates bought last month and have two four-inch guns and ten 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns. These last three ships, however, were specially equipped with an anti-submarine weapon called the “hedgehog,” but no details of this device have been supplied by the admiralty.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Purchasing Mission now in Britain is about to conclude arrangements for supplying the Egyptian Air Force and Navy with a number of fast motor-torpedo boats. The mission is now concentrating on negotiating deals which will enable the Egyptian Army to equip an armored brigade with the latest type tanks and other equipment.
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