IAI Delivers First ELM-2084 Air Defense and Surveillance Radar to The Czech Republic
On April 5, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced that the Czech Republic had received the first ELM-2084 multi-mission radar (MMR) system, which is used in Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and IAI’s ground-based Barak missile defense systems. The IAI video shows a packaged radar being loaded aboard an Ilyushin Il-76TD-90 cargo plane, which takes off from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and lands at Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport with the Czech Republic’s first mobile 3D air defense radar ELM-2084 MMR.
The Multi-Purpose Radar (MMR) was delivered to the Czech Armed Forces as part of a $125 million contract signed in December 2019 between Israel’s International Defense Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) and the Czech Ministry of Defense. Apart from the sale of 8 ELM-2084 Multi-Mission Radars (MMR) to the Czech Republic, the agreement also involves the transfer of technology from Israel to the Czech Republic and the participation of Czech partners in the project. The remaining radars scheduled to be delivered under the contract will be delivered in succession until 2023.
The recently delivered radar, according to Lubor Koudelka, Deputy Minister for Armaments and Acquisition, will replace Russian-made radar technology that has long been used in the Czech army and whose service life has long been exceeded, and will free the country from dependence on the Russian Federation’s arms industry.
IAI VP and ELTA CEO Yoav Tourgeman said: “Working together with our local Czech partners, IAI is proud to supply the Czech Ministry of Defense with these advanced radar systems on time and according to the project schedule. Despite the challenges of the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the project teams, in both Israel and the Czech Republic, were able to cooperate successfully while remaining committed to the aim of joint production. The advanced radar that has now been supplied to the Czech Republic is able to simultaneously identify and classify hundreds of targets, perform identification of unmanned platforms, missiles, rockets and other new threats in the operational area. We believe that the system’s ability to integrate with NATO systems will bring about a new era of operations for the Czech Ministry of Defense.”
ELM-2084 is a multi-purpose radar system with 3D AESA (active electronically scanned array) technology produced by ELTA, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries. The system includes air defense and weapon location radar capabilities. In air defense mode, it detects and classifies all types of air targets and creates an image of the airspace. In weapon location mode, it detects mortars, artillery shells and missiles and reports the position of the hostile weapon. It also performs real-time calculation of impact points and friendly fire range. The system also provides Fire Control Radar (FCR) functions and control to anti-missile systems and Surface-to-Air (SAM) missile systems via uplink, in addition to detection missions. The radar, which is also used in the Iron Dome and David’s Sling systems, has a range of 450+ kilometers for detecting air targets and up to 100 kilometers for weapon location.