Defense Ministry, Israel Shipyards sign NIS 90m. deal for floating dock
The Defense Ministry has signed a new agreement with Israel Shipyards to purchase a floating dock for the maintenance of the navy’s submarines and new Sa’ar 6 corvettes.
The procurement agreement signed between the ministry’s Department of Production and Procurement and Israel Shipyards is worth an estimated NIS 90 million and will include the construction of a floating dock which will be completed within 24 months, as well as support and maintenance work for the next 10 years.
The floating dock will allow staff to raise the ships above sea level for regular maintenance work, as well as to allow for the installation of Israeli-manufactured combat systems onto the vessels after they arrive from their shipyard in Germany.
In addition, as part of the agreement the ministry selected Israel Shipyards to lead the planning and construction of the navy’s future ships in order to replace boats built in the 1980s and 1990s. The initial planning phase will take over a year, the ministry said.
“In our joint effort, we have succeeded in raising a NIS budget, which will keep the work in Israel, in spite of budgetary constraints,” Avid Dadon, the head of the Department of Production and Procurement in the Defense Ministry, was quoted as saying.
The construction of the four Sa’ar 6 warships was agreed to in a €430 million deal between Israel and the German company ThyssenKrupp in 2015. The warships are set to arrive by 2021.
The new Sa’ar 6 vessels will defend Israel’s offshore natural gas fields as well as other strategic maritime assets, and according to the military also maintain “Israel’s sovereignty in the near and far seas, destroying the enemy’s war fleets and significantly contributing to complex and secret missions in the war-between-the-wars campaign.”
The new 90-meter-long ships will carry a crew of 70 sailors, who will be assisted by unmanned aerial vehicles and naval helicopters. They will have a maximum speed of 24 knots with a range of 2,500 nautical miles.
They will be fitted with two naval Iron Dome short-range defense missile launchers, with 20 Tamir missiles for each launcher, and the Barak8 long-range surface-to-air missile naval defense system.
In addition to interception missile defense systems, the ships will also have 16 antiship missiles, one 76-mm. OTO Melara Super Rapid main gun, two Typhoon 25-mm. remote weapon stations and two 324-mm. torpedo launchers for MK54 Lightweight Torpedoes.
Each ship will also be outfitted with cyber and electronic warfare systems.