RAMPAGE
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Being founded with the aim to provide a subjugated religious minority, a separate homeland where their fundamental rights may be secure is not the only commonality between the states of Pakistan and Israel. Both countries find themselves outgunned, outnumbered and outspent by neighbouring enemies and as a result find themselves relying on unconventional and out-of-the-box solutions to mitigate their disadvantaged position and maximise the gains from a limited military spending.
A good example would be the Israeli Navy's Sa'ar 5 and the underdevelopment Sa'ar 6 Class corvettes. These small corvettes pack the firepower of a vessel twice or even thrice their size. Their state-of-the-art multifunction/All-in-one EL/M-2248 MF-STAR AESA radar is capable of performing tasks that would be performed by 2 or maybe 3 separate radars on previous generation ships like Pakistan Navy's Zulfiqar Class Frigate. The same MF-STAR AESA radar of the 1300 tonnes Sa'ar 5 and 2000 tonnes Sa'ar 6 is shared by the 8000 tonnes Kolkatta Class Destroyer of the Indian Navy as its primary sensor.
Another unique feature of the brilliant Sa'ar 6 corvette is the high number missile launchers it is to have. The ship will have 32 cell vertical launch system in addition to 16 antiship missile launchers. It is the only ship in the world of its size to have such a high rate of firepower. It even outdoes the 3200 tonnes Formidable Class frigate of Singapore Navy.
The underdevelopment 2000 tonnes Israeli Sa'ar 6 Class Corvette
The MF-STAR AESA modules can be seen on Sa'ar 5 Corvette's mast.
Now that both Israeli Corvettes have been introduced, we shall move on to how we can incorporate such solutions on Pakistan Navy's new vessels.
Going by Pakistan Navy's history of procurements and the recent reports regarding the purchase of these new vessels, It would be safe to say that the vessels would be based on Milgem-Class, but customised according to Pakistan Navy's specifications.
There was a recent report about a request to enlarge the size of Milgems and it was speculated that the number of vertical launching cells was to be increased. However, there is plenty of space to increase the number of vertical launching systems from 16 to 32 without resizing the vessel.
For surface-to-air missiles, Pakistan Navy would probably look into Turkey Hisar family. The Chief of Army Staff has already been shown Hisar-A and Hisar-O missile systems. Hisar-U is the long range missile of the family and is currently under-development. It is the equivalent of Israeli 90 KM range Barak-8 and being used by Israeli and Indian Navy. It would be prudent to operationalise this long-range missile with the vessels. The empowerment of Pakistan Navy's surface fleet which has been propagated by Navy's senior officials in recent interviews, cannot be achieved without this specific capability. The selection of Zulfiqar-Class with a poor hull design was a setback for the Navy. If we go by the hull's design, the frigate seems like a downgrade from the Type-21 it replaced. I hope that such a performance would not be repeated in future.
The other subsystem that should be considered here is the Multifunction AESA radar from Aselsan's CAFRAD radar suite. The sensor suite is made up from three different types of AESA radar systems, Each type has four modules that have been integrated into the mast for a high-performance 360-degree surveillance. Beside the Multifunction AESA radar, the other two types of radar integrated into the suite are not of any use to Pakistan Navy. The other two being the long range air surveillance radar for ballistic missile defence and the Illuminator radar for terminal semi-active homing of Turkey's ESSM and the future SM-3 missile.
As Pakistan Navy is not planning to induct US missiles and BMD capability, It can request a customised CAFRAD mast incorporating just the Multifunction AESA radar. CAFRAD is a very modular design so such a thing would not be a problem. This radar would be an equivalent of Israel's MF-STAR AESA.
Aselsan CAFRAD Mast
The Multifunction AESA module.
A good example would be the Israeli Navy's Sa'ar 5 and the underdevelopment Sa'ar 6 Class corvettes. These small corvettes pack the firepower of a vessel twice or even thrice their size. Their state-of-the-art multifunction/All-in-one EL/M-2248 MF-STAR AESA radar is capable of performing tasks that would be performed by 2 or maybe 3 separate radars on previous generation ships like Pakistan Navy's Zulfiqar Class Frigate. The same MF-STAR AESA radar of the 1300 tonnes Sa'ar 5 and 2000 tonnes Sa'ar 6 is shared by the 8000 tonnes Kolkatta Class Destroyer of the Indian Navy as its primary sensor.
Another unique feature of the brilliant Sa'ar 6 corvette is the high number missile launchers it is to have. The ship will have 32 cell vertical launch system in addition to 16 antiship missile launchers. It is the only ship in the world of its size to have such a high rate of firepower. It even outdoes the 3200 tonnes Formidable Class frigate of Singapore Navy.
The underdevelopment 2000 tonnes Israeli Sa'ar 6 Class Corvette
The MF-STAR AESA modules can be seen on Sa'ar 5 Corvette's mast.
Now that both Israeli Corvettes have been introduced, we shall move on to how we can incorporate such solutions on Pakistan Navy's new vessels.
Going by Pakistan Navy's history of procurements and the recent reports regarding the purchase of these new vessels, It would be safe to say that the vessels would be based on Milgem-Class, but customised according to Pakistan Navy's specifications.
There was a recent report about a request to enlarge the size of Milgems and it was speculated that the number of vertical launching cells was to be increased. However, there is plenty of space to increase the number of vertical launching systems from 16 to 32 without resizing the vessel.
For surface-to-air missiles, Pakistan Navy would probably look into Turkey Hisar family. The Chief of Army Staff has already been shown Hisar-A and Hisar-O missile systems. Hisar-U is the long range missile of the family and is currently under-development. It is the equivalent of Israeli 90 KM range Barak-8 and being used by Israeli and Indian Navy. It would be prudent to operationalise this long-range missile with the vessels. The empowerment of Pakistan Navy's surface fleet which has been propagated by Navy's senior officials in recent interviews, cannot be achieved without this specific capability. The selection of Zulfiqar-Class with a poor hull design was a setback for the Navy. If we go by the hull's design, the frigate seems like a downgrade from the Type-21 it replaced. I hope that such a performance would not be repeated in future.
The other subsystem that should be considered here is the Multifunction AESA radar from Aselsan's CAFRAD radar suite. The sensor suite is made up from three different types of AESA radar systems, Each type has four modules that have been integrated into the mast for a high-performance 360-degree surveillance. Beside the Multifunction AESA radar, the other two types of radar integrated into the suite are not of any use to Pakistan Navy. The other two being the long range air surveillance radar for ballistic missile defence and the Illuminator radar for terminal semi-active homing of Turkey's ESSM and the future SM-3 missile.
As Pakistan Navy is not planning to induct US missiles and BMD capability, It can request a customised CAFRAD mast incorporating just the Multifunction AESA radar. CAFRAD is a very modular design so such a thing would not be a problem. This radar would be an equivalent of Israel's MF-STAR AESA.
Aselsan CAFRAD Mast
The Multifunction AESA module.
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