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Eagle Salute

Egypt and the United States stage annual naval exercises, code-named Eagle Salute, in the Red Sea. The Eagle Salute exercise has been staged annually since 1991.

Exercise Eagle Salute 97 was conducted in the Red Sea in mid-May 1997.

Eagle Salute 98, in late April 1998, began when Egypts Chinese-made frigate Al-Zafer sailed from the Safaga naval base, followed by the US Samuel B. Roberts, a Perry class guided missile frigate. Staging communications checks, the two frigates used flags, lights, radio signals and underwater vibrations to standardize a Language of understanding - a skill the two sides must acquire before embarking on a joint operation in the same theater.

This was followed by a night replenishment at sea exercise, in which the two frigates came close to each other and were only 100-120 yards apart. Ropes and phosphorous wires were laid down to link the two vessels, which simulated an exchange of messages and a refueling-at-sea training. According to military sources, this type of exercise is important because, in certain situations, ships need to be supplied at sea with fuel, ammunition and men.

Crewmen from the Egyptian frigate then boarded the American vessel to simulate a visit, board, search seizure exercise. The scenario is that a foreign vessel is carrying an illegal cargo, such as narcotics, inside territorial waters. It must be stopped and searched and the illegal cargo seized. Four sacks of corn represented the "illegal" cargo aboard the American frigate. Three of them were seized in a record time by the Egyptian crewmen.

Next an anti-submarine exercise was staged. An American SH-60 helicopter dropped into the water a submarine simulator, 160Cm long and 30Cm wide, which is programed to move at submarine speed, 10 knots per hour, and produce the same noises of a submarine. The Egyptian frigate reacted by hurling into the sea a sonar, which picked up the noise vibrations produced by the submarine simulator and relayed them back to the frigate. The assumption is that the frigate used depth charges to destroy the submarine.

The two frigate's then staged a search and rescue exercise, followed by a surface and air gunnery exercise.

The climax of the war games came on the third day when the two frigates were locked in an "encounter exercise". The American frigate, backed by SH-60 helicopters, staged a mock attack against an Egyptian naval base in an attempt to occupy it. The mock attack was repulsed by the Egyptian frigate and F-16 jet-fighters. The frigates mission is to provide air, submarine and surface protection for carrier battle groups, underway replenishment forces, amphibious groups and convoys. Her unique combination of modern sensors and advanced weapons systems allow the ship to fight and survive in the highly complex threat environment of the 1990's and beyond. The frigates combat systems capability allows it to evaluate threats rapidly, conduct rapid appropriate weapons selection and near instantaneous response to any postulated attack. The systems aboard the ship have been designed to meet these demanding and dynamic prerequisites with minimum human interference.