Egypt's naval forces commander Osama Rabie stated on Friday that the new Mistral-class aircraft carrier Anwar El-Sadat can be used in a range of missions, from confronting militancy in North Sinai to protecting oil fields at sea.
Rabie told reporters that the ship can be used to transfer land troops and armoured vehicles.
The vice admiral also said that the carrier, named after the late Egyptian president, would play a role in securing Egypt's oil and gas fields off shore, which he says include 99 rigs in total.
The warship arrived in Alexandria on Thursday from France.
This is the second Mistral that Egypt has officially received this year, with the first, named after late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, arriving in June from the French city of Toulouse.
In the statements released on Friday, Vice Admiral Rabie said that the new carriers raise the Egyptian Armed Forces' ranking in the Middle East – the only country in the region to include such vessels in its arsenal.
The Mistral deal is part of several defence contracts Egypt has signed with France, now topping the list of countries to have signed military supply agreements with Egypt during the term of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.
