The Ezzat class or Ambassador MK III fast missile boat is a small warship built by VT Halter Marine for the Egyptian Navy. Four fast missile boat were planned at a total cost of US$1.290m; the first, S. Ezzat, was handed over in November 2013 and the remainder were scheduled to follow in 2013-14. Egypt already operated Halter’s Ambassador design as a patrol boat for their Coast Guard fleet, and chose a variant of the design with reduced radar cross-section as the basis for a large modern missile boat. The Ambassador MK III fast missile boat design was conducted with the assistance of Lockheed Martin.
The stealthy, 550-ton 63m-long Ezzat class vessels fast missile boat has high speed and manoeuvrability. Its beam is 10m and draft is 2m. Aluminium is used for superstructure to reduce the overall weight, maintenance and radar signature. Its hull is made of steel. The fast missile boat is designed to resist radar detection. It incorporates ship signature control technology. The ship is equipped with several sensors and combat systems for electronic, anti-aircraft and anti-surface warfare capabilities.
They are armed with eight RGM-84L Boeing Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles (SSM) Block II missiles and an OTO Melara 76mm main gun, with self-defense provided by a Rolling Airframe Missile launcher and a Phalanx CIWS Block 1B. The vessel also contains a MK44 MOD 2 Block 1 guided missile round pack that can support 21 canister-mounted missiles, one Raytheon MK15 Mod 21 Phalanx Block 1B 20mm close-in weapon system (CIWS) and two deck-mounted 7.62mm M60 machine guns. The countermeasures of the vessel include Argon ST WBR-2000 electronics support measures / electronic countermeasures (ESM/ECM) suite and four MK32 chaf f/ IR launchers from BAE Systems land and armament systems division.
The Ezzat class fast missile boat is equipped with Thales Naval Nederland Scout radar, MRR-3D ES radar for surface and air surveillance and I and K dual-band fire control radar from DRS Radar Systems. It is also fitted with a Thales Naval Nederlands Link ASN 150, LinkYE, Link 14, and Link 11 datalinks, identification, friend or foe (IFF) identification systems, Lockheed Martin’s lightweight shipboard electro-optical combat management system and the L-3 Communications Brashear fire control system. The four fast missile boat of the class (Ezzat, Zekry, Fahmy and Gad) are powered by three MTU diesels. The propulsion system generates a total power of 30,000shp (22,380kW) providing a maximum speed of 41kt. The vessel has a range of 2,000nm at 15kt. The mission endurance of the Fast Missile Boat is eight days at sea.
