Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has completed the integration of MF-STAR (Magen Adir) radars on the Israeli Navy’s first SA’AR 6 corvette, some six months after the ship arrived in Israel from Germany.
INS Magen was launched in May 2019 by Germany’s thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, and handed over in November 2020.
IAI, together with the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (part of IMoD) and the Israeli Navy, completed the first phase of installing the radars and will continue to integrate the BARAK MX air defense system (Ra’am Adir) on the vessels.
The radars will serve to locate and classify air and surface targets and help build a detailed maritime picture of the surveillance area. The MF-STAR radar system will serve as the “brain,” integrated with all surveillance sensors on every one of the Israeli Navy’s new warships.
The radar system is also an important component of the BARAK MX air defense system (Ra’am Adir), and provides a layer of defense against aerial and naval threats.
The radars are based on active electronic scanning array (AESA) technology developed by IAI’s ELTA Systems Ltd. These systems reduce the target acquisition response time, and enable the tracking of a wide range of targets. MF-STAR includes four radar panels that provide 360-degree hemispherical coverage around the vessel.
The radars are an integral component of defending air, space and territorial waters, including Israel’s strategic assets: the natural gas rigs, defending against rockets, enemy aircraft and more.
In addition to Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles, the four corvettes will be equipped with anti-ship missiles and Oto Melara 76 mm main guns. They will also have torpedo launchers and a helipad and hangaring space for an embarked helicopter.
“The combat and air defense systems installed on the SA’AR 6 corvettes represents the significant tier now being integrating on the rest of Israel’s air defense array, an integral aspect of IAI’s system wide naval solutions,” Boaz Levy, president and CEO of IAI, said.
TKMS is building four SA’AR 6-corvettes for Israel in a joint venture with German Naval Yards Kiel under a contract from May 2015. All four units are scheduled for delivery in 2021.
