Al Defaiya conducted an interview with Loic Grégoire, Naval Group VP Sales for the UAE during the recent IDEX-NAVDEX Exhibitions held in Abu Dhabi from 17-21 February 2025.

For his part, Patrice Pyra, Naval Group VP, Sales and Country Director for KSA briefed Al Defaiya on Naval Group’s presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

Al Defaiya: Naval Group is an international player that serves the strategic operations of more than 50 navies. After the successful FREMM, what are the main products of the Group?

Loic Grégoire: Naval Group is involved at every stage in the product life cycle, from design of submarines, surface ships and equipment to in-service support. We are developing and building tomorrow’s cutting-edge fully digital warships, and we innovate to guarantee our customers competitiveness and technological superiority at sea. As such, we have a vast portfolio of surface ships and submarines, but also equipment to provide our clients navies with state-of-the-art capabilities in all domains of warfare.

The Gowind® corvette, of which we have delivered two units to the UAE Navy in 2023 and 2024, is one of our main products in the field of surface ships as well as the FDI fregate and the Mine counter measures vessel.

AL Defaiya: How do you assess the competition with other international shipbuilders in the Middle East?

Loic Grégoire: The international naval market is very dynamic. In addition to our traditional competitors, mainly other European companies, there are a growing number of highly competitive new contenders from emerging markets. As we are one of the rare companies in the world to be a system provider as well as an integrator, a shipbuilder and a service-provider along with a proven capacity to offer a wide program of technology transfer, I am confident in our ability to offer the best services to navies.

Al Defaiya: Does Naval Group have any Joint Venture (JV) with shipbuilders in the Gulf States?

Loic Grégoire: We have signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and teaming agreements with different companies in the Gulf.

Al Defaiya: On February 7, 2025, Naval Group delivered the second Gowind class corvette (Al Emarat) to the UAE Navy. What is the total number of corvettes ordered by UAE? What are the main characteristics of this vessel?

Loic Grégoire: Naval Group delivered the Gowind® Al Emarat in June 2024. February 2025 is the date of the commissioning by the UAE Navy. The UAE ordered 2 corvettes in 2019, which were both delivered in 2023 and 2024.

Multi-role by design, the Gowind® corvette features capabilities in all warfare areas, carefully integrated from the earliest stages of the engineering process. Robust and well-equipped, the Gowind® corvette is already sea-tested, tough and stealthy. It integrates the latest generation of sensors and weapons. More specifically, Gowind® provides:

• High performance in all fields of combat, integrated by the SETIS combat system and an innovative modular integrated mast (PSIM)
• Automated systems for simplified use by a reduced crew
• Deployable resources (heavy helicopter, UAVs, RHIBs) to extend the ship's combat capabilities
• Scalability to meet customer needs and incorporate the latest innovations

On Naval Group’s presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Patrice Pyra, Naval Group VP, Sales and Country Director for KSA, said: “Since the 1980s, Naval Group has established close relationship with the Kingdom in delivering major naval programs (SAWARI 1 & 2) and providing fleets with through-life support.

Naval Group’s strategy is fully aligned with the Vision 2030 ambitious objectives. Our strategy towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for every program is to strengthen the actual partnership already in place to develop and leverage existing industrial capabilities defense ecosystem.

For future programs, Naval Group is ideally positioned to be one of the major trusted partners to support Saudi national champions in shipbuilding and mission systems integration. Our unique international experience in transferring technology and know-how provides sovereignty-enabling solutions and services to the Kingdom at the highest standard.

Today, Naval Group is present mainly through Naval Group Arabia which constitutes a skilled workforce dedicated to current and future contracts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Naval Group Arabia is a Company created under the Saudi Companies Law as “Limited Liability Company”, established in 2012 in Riyadh and in charge of MRO works for military systems.

After a first contract signed with the MOD/RSNF related to Urgent Technical Support Services for SAWARI 1 & 2, Naval Group Arabia is currently committed in a 4-year Maintenance Services, Logistic and technical assistance support for SAWARI 1 & 2.

Additionally, Naval Group Arabia also manages and develops several activities in the Kingdom such as relation with Saudi authorities and local partners. As a local company, Naval Group Arabia will be involved in the new opportunities such as future naval projects.”

Photo © Naval Group: Delivery of the second Gowind® corvette Al Emarat to the United Arab Emirates on 27th June 2024 in Lorient, France, in the presence of an official delegation of the UAE Navy, led by the Deputy Commander, Brigadier Abdulla Al Mehairbi.