Israel received SA’AR 6 – one of the heaviest armed ships

By TOC

WARSAW, (BM) – ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ concern handed over to the Israeli Navy the second in the series corvette SA’AR 6, considered by experts to be one of the most heavily armed ships in its class, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing Defence24.

The handover ceremony of the second SA’AR 6 corvette was organized at ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) in Kiel. Israeli Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Isakharov and his wife, Laura Kam Isakharov, who was also the ship’s godmother, took part in the ceremony, which kept to a minimum due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

The Corvette was named INS “Oz” (“Courage”) as the first ship in history. Later in the ceremony, the managing director of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Dr. Rolf Wirtz, officially handed over the Corvette to the Israeli Navy, represented by Rear Admiral Ariel Shear.

The weight given to the event by the Israelis is understandable when you consider that the SA’AR 6 corvettes (90 meters long, 13 meters wide, and with a total displacement of 1,900 tons) will form the backbone of the Israeli fleet for the next thirty years. Under the agreement, signed in May 2015, Israel is to receive a total of four such ships in record time. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, all units must be transmitted by TKMS by the end of 2021.

Radars and weapons systems are Israeli

When transmitting all devices, the free space allotted to the antennas of the primary radar station, integrated into the four sides of the upper part of the front mast, immediately attracts attention. However, this is in line with the treaty. The assembly of radars and weapons systems must be carried out in Israel by its industry.

IAI Elta must supply the EL / M-2248 MF-STAR radar with active wall antennas of class AESA. The IAI concern will also monitor the Barak 8 anti-aircraft system installation with 32 silos for medium-range water-to-air missiles. The ship will have two short-range C-Dome anti-aircraft missile systems (each with twenty missiles) provided by Raphael. The Corvette will be further prepared to receive sixteen anti-ship missiles – most likely the IAI type Gabriel V.

The Israelis will even be responsible for installing artillery systems, including a 76-mm Oto Melara Super Rapid pistol and two 25-millimeter Rafael Typhoon artillery systems. The whole will be supplemented with anti-submarine weapons, two 324 mm triple torpedo launchers, and a Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopter. However, the Israeli Navy must also be prepared to take attack helicopters on board.

$530 million will pay Israel for the four corvettes of this class

In this way, Israel will receive four corvettes, which can be considered smaller analogs of Aegis class destroyers due to their capabilities. Tel Aviv achieved all this for only $530 million because precisely the Israelis managed to negotiate in the agreement concluded in 2015.

However, it should be remembered that the German government agreed to cover about a quarter of the contract costs and that the TKMS group did not deal with the most expensive weapons and surveillance systems.

Given these conditions, we can assume that the construction of all four corvettes cost Israel about 1.2 billion euros. Most systems installed on SA’AR-6 corvettes are also available for the Polish fleet as part of the Miecznik program.

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