TSAMTO, September 9. Israel Shipyards Ltd. announced the signing of a contract with the Israeli Defense Ministry for the implementation of the development stage of the working project of the next-generation corvette Reshef for the Israeli Navy.
The agreement is the last step before the ship construction stage. At this stage, Israel Shipyards will present an engineering and technical plan adapted to the needs of the country's Navy.
Designed to replace the Saar 4.5-class corvettes in service with the Israeli Navy, which have been in operation for more than 30 years, the new ship should successfully counter both existing and new challenges and threats.
It is planned that the ships of the Reshef class will be created on the basis of the proven Saar-72 project developed by Israel Shipyards and will significantly expand the capabilities of the Israeli fleet to conduct combat operations in the future, will ensure the protection of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), offshore oil and gas fields located in the territorial waters of Israel. All combat systems on board the new ship will be manufactured by the Israeli defense industry.
"Saar-72" (SAAR 72) is a multi-purpose unobtrusive ship with a modular design, which in the "corvette" configuration can be used for conducting combat operations at sea. In the OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel) version of the patrol ship, it can be equipped with lighter weapons. The length of the ship is 72 m, width-10.25 m, displacement-800 tons, maximum speed-about 30 knots, autonomy-21 days, crew-50 people, including officers and sailors. It can accommodate 20 passengers or special forces on board.
It is assumed that the new ship will be equipped with a 76-mm artillery installation in the bow, two remotely controlled weapons modules and, presumably, two Spike NLOS missile launchers, two four-container PU anti-ship missiles "Gabriel", 16 SAM "Barak-8". A helicopter will be based on board.
