The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that it has signed a “milestone” order with Israel Shipyards for five new missile frigates, with each frigate costing approximately $156 million and a total contract value of approximately $780 million.
At the end of November, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Military Procurement approved the construction plan for five new “Reshef”-class missile corvettes. According to the contract, Israeli Shipyards Ltd. will build and deliver the five new ships within six years, with the Israeli Ministry of Defense also having additional procurement options.
The “Reshef” design is based on the “Sa’ar 72” class light corvette, which was unveiled by Israeli Shipyards in 2013. According to early design plans, the “Reshef” ship has an overall length of approximately 76.2 meters, a top speed of 30 knots, and a displacement of around 1,000 tons. It is equipped with a 76mm deck gun, a maritime version of the “Iron Dome” air defense system, a small number of anti-ship missiles, and a suite of electronic warfare equipment.
It is worth mentioning that the US Department of Defense will provide part of the funds for the construction of the new frigate, on the condition that the Israeli shipyards must cooperate with an American shipyard and subcontract some of the hull modules to the American shipyard to meet the US manufacturing requirements in the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The name of the American shipyard and the amount of US funding were not disclosed.
Israel Shipyards is located in Haifa, a port city in northern Israel, and has a history of more than 60 years. The shipyard covers an area of 330,000 square meters. In addition to military ships, the shipyard’s products in the commercial ship field include container ships and cargo ships ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 tons, floating docks, tugboats, service ships, etc.