The corvette is a multipurpose vessel with anti-submarine warfare and anti-air capabilities based on the Israeli Navy Reshef-class corvette, also known as SA’AR 72 corvettes, which will replace Sa’ar 4.5-class missile boats in the coming years. For record, SA’AR 72 have a length of 72 meters, a full displacement of about 800 tons with a top speed of over 30kn. It can operate a medium size marine helicopter as well as deploy Special Forces units.
The ship is designed to perform a wide range of missions including patrol and surveillance, naval combat operations, counter illegal activities as well as search and rescue operations.
Initially, the corvette offered to the Hellenic Navy was the SA’AR 72, but along discussions with the Hellenic Navy, she made clear that she would need the bigger version offered by Israeli Shipyards and their Greek partner, Onex Neorion Shipyards. To meet Hellenic requirements, the two companies offer a longer and wider vessel: The Themistocles-class.
“We are here in Greece to introduce the Themistocles-class corvette. It is 79 meters-long corvette weighting approximately 1000 tons.”
“It will carry a lot of kind of systems, armaments, electronics. It has a 3D radar, surface missile, anti-air missiles as well as 76mm gun and other systems for anti-submarine warfare.”
Oded Breier – V.P. Marketing for Israel Shipyards
The Themistocles-class corvette is 79 meters-long, has a beam of 11 meters and a design draught of over 3 meters. The corvette should weigh 950 tonnes and be propelled by a CODAD (combined diesel and diesel) system with four MTU 16V4000M93L of 3440kW engines. The ship should reach a top speed of 30 knots and have a range of 2500 nautical miles at a 15knots speed.
Even though, the Hellenic Navy is currently focused on its frigate replacement program, Israeli Shipyards hopes to make a good impression by taking the lead in introducing their offer. It is also confident it can compete against the EPC (European Patrol Corvette) program, which Greece joined in January 2020.
“I know the Hellenic navy is very busy now with their frigates replacement program and probably once they will finish, the next project will be the corvettes and the Themistocles-class is the one of our choice.”
“Discussions are in progress, and we believe that it’s going through very nicely.”
Oded Breier – V.P. Marketing for Israel Shipyards.
