Israeli Navy Sa’ar 6-class corvette INS Oz successfully completed a “Gabriel 5” Anti-Ship missile test as part of the operationalization process of “MAGEN” ships in August 2022. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the test firing was also an opportunity to test the combat systems of INS Oz, the second Sa’ar 6-class corvette. The Sa’ar 6-class corvette is a series of four German-made corvettes ordered for the Israeli Navy in May 2015. All four vessels were constructed in Germany in a joint project by German Naval Yards Holdings and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.
INS Oz is a Sa’ar 6-class corvette of the Israeli Navy. She is the second ship of her class. The Sa’ar 6-class corvettes’ design will be loosely based on the German Braunschweig-class corvette, but with engineering changes to accommodate Israeli-built sensors and missiles such as the Barak 8 and the naval Iron Dome system. She was launched on 24 August 2019 at German Naval Yards and ThyssenKrupp in Kiel. She was handed over to Israeli Navy on 4 May 2021. In Haifa in September 2022, the vessel’s 76/62 rapid-fire main gun was ceremonially accepted for her and her sister ship Magen.
The Sa’ar 6-class vessels have a displacement of almost 1,900 tons at full load and is 90 m (295 ft 3 in) long. They are armed with an Oto Melara 76 mm main gun, two Typhoon Weapon Stations, 32 vertical launch cells for Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles, 20 cells for the C-Dome point defense system, 16 anti-ship missiles (likely Gabriel 5), the EL/M-2248 MF-STAR AESA radar, and two 324 mm (12.8 in) torpedo launchers. They have hangar space and a platform able to accommodate a medium class SH-60-type helicopter. Elbit Systems has been awarded the contract to design and build the electronic warfare (EW) suites for the ships
Gabriel is a family of sea skimming anti-ship missiles manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The initial variant of the missile was developed in the 1960s in response to the needs of the Israeli Navy which first deployed it in 1970. Since then, variants have been exported to navies around the world. The latest variant, the Gabriel V, is in use by the Finnish and Israeli navies as of 2020. IAI is reportedly working on a Gabriel V Advanced Naval Attack Missile, with an advanced active multi-spectra seeker designed for cluttered littoral environments. Range is claimed to be more than 200 km to 400 km.
