Sources close to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Elta division have told asianmilitaryreview.com that the firm expects to complete sea trials of its EL/M-2258 Alpha naval surveillance radar by the end of the year.
The EL/M-2258 is an S-band (2.3-2.5/2.7-3.7 gigahertz) three-dimensional (altitude, azimuth and velocity) naval surveillance radar which uses an active electronically scanned array. The radar is due to equip all eleven ships in the Israeli Navy’s ‘Sa’ar-4.5’ class of missile boats. According to open sources, these ships are currently equipped with an IAI Elta EL/M-2208 S-band naval surveillance radar, reportedly an Israeli development of the Thompson-CSF/Thales THD-1040 S-band system. Although installation of the EL/M-2258 is expected by the end of the year, IAI sources continued that the retrofit of the balance of the fleet with the new radar will occur as and when the vessels remain in port for periods of refit and maintenance. Sources continued that the installation of the new radar onboard each ship is expected to take around two weeks.
Regarding performance, the EL/M-2258 performs automatic track initialisation for low flying aircraft at a range of 13.4 nautical miles/nm (25 kilometres/km) according to the company’s literature, with high flying fighter-sized targets undergoing track initialisation at a range of 64.7nm (120km). Using a rotating antenna, the radar provides 70 degrees of elevation. Alongside surface and air surveillance, the EL/M-2258 can also perform fire control.
by Thomas Withington
