IAI Completes Installation of ALPHA Radar on Israeli Navy Missile OPV

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has recently completed the installation of the advanced ALPHA (Advanced Lightweight Phased Array) ELM-2258 radar system on the Israeli Navy’s SAAR 4.5 missile ship, and has proceeded to operational sea trials.

The Israeli Navy is expected to receive two more ALPHA radars by the end of 2017, reaching a total of 11 systems, to be installed on the navy’s missile ships. The light weight innovative radar system is based on full digital AESA technology by IAI ELTA Systems and is an integral part of the combat systems installed on the missile ships. The ALPHA is rotating AESA radar, capable of producing a large number of simultaneous beams for maritime and aerial targets, and to provide a high quality situation picture in the most extreme marine environment. The radar can perform several tasks at the same time, such as: Detection and classification of naval targets, tracking of a large number of targets, and integration into guided missile systems for defence and attack. Thanks to its size, it can be installed on small and medium-sized vessels such as corvettes, missile ships and medium-sized patrol ships. In addition, the radar provides a solution for upgrading existing navy vessels or installation on new platforms.

The system will upgrade the operational capabilities of the Israeli Navy missile ships SAAR 4.5 and SAAR 5, and will be an integrative part of the future operational capability of the vessels. The system provides one of the most advanced operational solutions in the field of naval situation picture and its light weight enables it to be installed on a large variety of maritime platforms.