Sons of Sa’ar? Israel’s Next Generation Frigates
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The 1,227t/ 1,350 ton Sa’ar 5 Eilat Class corvettes were built by Northrop Grumman in the 1990s for about $260 million each. It’s a decent performer in a number of roles, from air defense to anti-submarine work, to coastal patrol and special forces support – but a master of none. The Israelis are looking for a next-generation vessel with better high-end capabilities, and the USA is their logical supplier. Given Israel’s size and cost requirements, however, the only American option was their Littoral Combat Ship.
Israel pursued that option for several years, conducting studies and trying to get a better sense of feasibility and costs. Their approach would have been very different from the American LCS ships, removing the swappable “mission modules” and replacing them with a fixed and fully capable set of air defense, anti-ship, and anti-submarine weapons. In the end, however, the project was deemed to be unaffordable. Instead, Israel is negotiating with Germany – whose surface shipbuilder is now partly owned by a United Arab Emirates consortium…
- LCS-I: Details and Rationale [updated]
- Contracts & Key Events [updated]
- Additional Readings & Sources
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- Timeline of key events, including advance studies, the RFP, and subsequent developments
- A review of the Lockheed Martin LCS-I and major changes to the US Navy's Freedom Class LCS design
- Discussion of Israeli defense requirements and system capability measures
- Changes to the program that have Israel looking at other options
- Related discussion from DII, including: "The USA's New Littoral Combat Ships," and "USN Approves LCS Surface Warfare Package - But Doubts Remain"
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