The 3rd of July Naval Base (Courtesy of Egyptian Army)
BEIRUT: Egypt has inaugurated a new naval base on the Mediterranean Sea, in a move that regional experts say is both a clear commitment to its war-torn neighbor Libya and an indirect warning to its rival Turkey.
“The opening of the base signifies Egypt’s determination to assert itself as a regional naval power with vast capacities,” one Egyptian official told Breaking Defense. “Cairo is determined to challenge efforts by its competitors like Turkey to expand their area of influence and control oil and gas rich zones of the Mediterranean.”
Dubbed “3rd of July,” the base is in Gargoub, around 140km from the border with Libya. Spread over 10 square kilometers, it has a 1,000m naval pier with a water depth of 14km. The base was named “July 3” after the day eight years ago when an army-backed popular uprising removed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi from power.
The location helps to fortify Egypt’s northern coasts, and is the latest in a series of naval base developments planned by Cairo. Back in Jan. 2020, Cairo inaugurated its “Bernice” naval base in the southeast, overlooking the Red Sea, and will soon inaugurate a new one east of Port Said on the northern end of the Suez Canal.
“The new base is a crucial take off point to intervene in case of any threats that could arise in Libya,” said Mohammad Al-Kenany, director of the military studies unit at the Arab Forum for Policy Analysis in Cairo. . “Egyptian units will be rapidly deployed on the Libyan coasts when needed, especially given the unsteadiness of the situation there.”
Given the strategic importance, it may seem a surprise there was not already a military port at Gargoub. But Egypt’s naval priorities have been focused more on updating its fleets than updating its basing structure, and the creation of the Bernice base, which serves both air and naval assets, was a higher priority.
Changes in geopolitics also helped focus attention on developing the new facility.
Libya and Egypt share a defense agreement — based on an official request from the Libyan Parliament to the Egyptian Army in July 2020 — that allows Cairo to step in, in case of terrorist threats, or an intervention of regional powers in Libyan affairs. The main challenge that Libya still faces is the continued flow of weapons despite the UN embargo, becoming among the biggest passageways of weapons in the world.
The issue dates back to the revolution of 2011, when, the Libyan army collapsed and the Gaddafi regime’s stockpiles of light weapons were smuggled across the Egyptian border. Other foreign actors have backed a collection of armed groups in the country.
Egypt sees security challenges from both Islamic militants and foreign powers in Libya, with a special eye on Turkey. Cairo and Ankara broke off relations after the 2013 overthrow of Morsi, who was supported by his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In recent years, Turkey has made a push to normalize relations with Egypt, but the latter has put a number of conditions in place, including the halt of what Cairo views as aggressive actions from Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean, in northern Iraq, Syria and Libya, and of Turkey’s support of what Egypt calls terrorist organizations in the region.
So it’s no surprise the base’s operational range also “prevents the presence of a possible Turkish base that may be sited on the Libyan border to be closer to Egypt,” retired Kuwaiti Air Force Col. Zafer Alajmi explained.
And if Egypt really wished to upset Ankara, Alajmi noted, the new base provides a great opportunity for working with Greece, Turkey’s historic and still ongoing rival. Alajmi noted the base would work as a “liaison hub with Greece to surround Turkey, because the [Greeks] want to be part of a particular scheme that aims to limit the Turkish presence in that area.”
The base also fills a “geographically unjustified Egyptian void” from Libya’s side, said Alajmi, so it is vital for Cairo to have a strategic presence there. “It is a clear message to any force that can pose a threat.”
There are economic factors that play into the location for the new base. First, Egypt will soon start exploring oil and gas on the west of the exclusive economic zone extending to the border with Libya.
“Cairo is even planning to build a petrochemical plant west of El Alamein, a town on the Mediterranean cost, so the 3rd of July base could actually be an important export and import point to these commodities,” Al-Kenany said.
Second, the base will help secure international traffic in the northwest of Egypt, “an important aspect to maintain international peace and security, fight terrorism and arms smuggling and induct search and rescue missions,” Al-Kenany said. It can also be a transit point to Egypt’s allies, such as the US and NATO, for refueling or accommodation purposes and could hold joint naval trainings and exercises.
What we know about the “3rd of July”
Although it has not yet been revealed what types of naval assets will be stationed there, 47 ships were present at the inauguration day earlier this month, with the Egyptian flag raised above them all to officially mark the beginning of their service in the Egyptian navy.
Reports from the scene cite include two FREMM Bergamini multipurpose frigates, one Gowind corvette, one Type 209 submarine, ten long-range coastal boats, four 28meter-long swift ships, 28 “1200 Rafale” rigid inflatable boats and one rescue boat.
The base is deep enough to accommodate bigger assets like the US Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, Al-Kenany noted, adding that it has quays for commercial shipping spread over 2200m, with a water depth of 17m.
It comprises 74 different facilities including combat units, a joint naval training center, a landing helicopter dock able to accommodate three to four helicopters, seven training fields and a medical field, and is equipped to carry out joint trainings and missions with friendly countries.
It is also fitted with an operations center equipped with a command-and-control system linked to the country’s C4I and C5I systems.
“The feature here is the autonomy in issuing orders which ensures an effective way of data sharing and a faster intervention in case of any threats,” Al-Kenany said. “The center facilitates the process of linking naval ships altogether, saving the time, effort and cost, without returning to the main command center.”
Prior to that, all orders were centralized in the main command center in Ras El-Tin on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria. But, after separating Egypt’s navy into Southern and Northern fleets, a command and control center has been dedicated to each naval base.
“The key is that the new center is not only intended to guide the naval operations but is also linked to all other command and control centers in Egypt, early warning centers, and land and air forces to carry out joint operations, in addition to drones operating on different naval assets,” explained Al-Kenany.
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