Vessels for Egypt hitch a ride

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Two fast missile craft built in Mississippi for the Egyptian Navy were loaded onto a civilian transport ship in Pensacola Bay Sunday. The publication Defense News reports that the crafts' officers have been training at NAS Pensacola since July 2013. (Source: Pensacola News Journal, 05/25/14) VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, Miss., in 2011 received a four-craft contract valued at $807 million to build the vessels. A story in the Mississippi Press at that time said the first vessel would be delivered in the fourth-quarter of 2012. The craft perform coastal patrol, surveillance, interdiction, surface strike and naval battle group support. Egypt planned to use the vessels to patrol its coastal waterways of the Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal.