Videos and reports about a Greek warship that has effectively protected commercial ships in the Red Sea area, as part of the EUNAVFOR ASPIDES, are flooding the press and social media this month. This warship is none other than the Hellenic Navy Hydra-class (MEKO 200HN) frigate Psara, which, despite its age and condition (having undergone only minimal upgrades or changes), seems to meet threats without even using a single one of its valuable and expensive RIM-162 ESSM Block 1 surface-to-air missiles (SAM) (Hydra-class frigates carry 16 x ESSM in their Mk48 Mod 5 VLS), relying only on its Mk45 Mod2A 127mm gun and a Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) system installed shortly before departure.
The recently revealed system is called Centaur, a product of Greek design and development, specifically by Greece’s largest state defense industry, the Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI), which developed it with its own resources. Notably, since the 1990s, HAI has developed significant capabilities in designing electronic warfare systems, first testing such systems with great success on A-7 Corsair II fighter aircraft. Naval News spoke with HAI executives and learned about the history of this system, its successes, and its overall characteristics.
The Centaur system was initially designed a few years ago to equip vehicles, meaning it was not intended for naval use. Its installation as naval equipment became possible due to the urgent need for a more capable C-UAS than the one installed on the Hydra frigate and due to the persistence of HAI leadership in demonstrating the operational capabilities of the system, which had proven its effectiveness in a series of exercises with very challenging scenarios.
It’s important to clarify that installing the system on the Psara frigate was not an easy task. A system on a naval platform has specific requirements: it must withstand vibrations, saltwater, not interfere with the multitude of sensors around it, and be able to take aim, among other things. HAI technicians achieved this and more, making many structural changes to the system’s design despite time constraints and its early configuration.
The system truly justified HAI’s persistence as it genuinely impressed with its performance! First by detecting targets at very long distances, automatically tracking them, and then jamming their systems, resulting in surface vessels, fighter aircraft, or unmanned aerial vehicles being unable to complete their missions, i.e., to threaten the frigate carrying the system. Subsequently, the Psara frigate sailed for the Red Sea, being equipped with this new system, where it would face the dangers inherent in operations in a war zone.
For months, we have seen warships rotating in the Red Sea, attempting to protect commercial ships from attacks by the Houthis, who have employed an impressive array of weapons, including numerous unmanned aircraft. On the other hand, Western allies have employed every possible deterrent, testing their forces against new threats. In confronting these new threats, the Psara frigate, thanks to Centaur, has dominated the news. Why? Because thanks to Centaur, it managed to prevent multiple attacks on commercial ships without using missiles, in stark contrast to many allied warships that used their expensive missiles or guided projectiles. This capability is truly an added value to a warship’s equipment.
The Centaur system consists of a passive receiver installed on the frigate’s mast, capable of locking onto multiple targets at extremely long distances, the consoles for the operators, while the jammer, installed on the ship’s bridge roof, is remotely controlled and can cover the ship’s forward arc. This jammer can automatically track targets and, as previously mentioned, uses an advanced algorithm to make focused jamming, meaning it jams with all its energy on the single frequency the target is operating on, a truly innovative feature of the system.
In the Red Sea, the system “saw” all threats from impressive distances, even the UAVs with such a small RCS, functioning passively like another R-ESM, surpassing the existing DR-3000 R-ESM system which was installed on the ship in order to replace the obsolete AR-700, while using targeted jamming energy to either neutralize threats through destruction or repel them, as the operators lost control of their aircraft and chose self-destruction to avoid falling into Western hands.
The recent video circulating shows through the electro-optical system MLT-TDR-10A the downing of a UAV by the Centaur system, which effectively jammed the link between the carrier and the operator, causing the latter to choose self-destruction to prevent it downing from falling into Western hands. No gunfire was used, specifically no proximity/infrared projectile (VT/IR), as initially assumed, since there was no vibration on the ship from a Mk45 shot, nor the creation of a “cloud” characteristic of VT/IR projectile. The system, and the professionalism of the Greek personnel, truly impressed the foreign personnel on board the ship with its handling of the UAVs.
Currently, the Centaur system is not installed in its full configuration on frigate Psara as it was urgently deployed to cover a national need in an extremely demanding field. In its full configuration and final form, it will be integrated to the ship’s CMS and have its own higher-spec electro-optical system and additional jammers. It is also designed to receive performance upgrades. And as Vice Admiral (retired) Alexandros G. Diakopoulos, President and CEO of HAI, stated to Naval News:
HAI has several systems in the design and development phase and intends to enter the production of new technology systems dynamically in the near future, either independently or through collaborations. However, we must never forget our core business, which is the MRO of aircraft, helicopters, and engines, as well as aerostructures (we manufacture 30% of the fuselage of the F-16 and 70% of the fuselage of the C-130J).
President and CEO of HAI, Vice Admiral (retired) Alexandros G. Diakopoulos
Note that the Centaur system, in its full configuration, costs below 2 million euros (less than the cost of a single ESSM SAM!), is scalable, innovative, battle-proven as we have seen, is of Greek development and ownership, with all that entails for achieving autonomy and supply security for the country’s Armed Forces, especially in wartime. The installation of the system on Hellenic Navy units is imperative, as it can shift the balance of power in favor of the country in this aspect of operations.
