The Hungarian armed forces will replace its Soviet radars this year with EL-2084 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars manufactured by Israel’s ELTA Systems Ltd., daily Magyar Hírlap reports.
Hungary signed a contract for the delivery of 11 ELM-2084 radars at an undisclosed value; the radars have been produced by ELTA in Israel since 2010. One EL-2084 unit — consisting of a radar unit, a control module, a cooling unit and a power generator — costs between $12 million and $15 million, depending on the size of the order.
According to press reports, Rheinmetall Canada will adapt this equipment to the needs of NATO and the Hungarian Defence Forces.
The first units are expected to arrive in 2023 and enter service in 2024. If the companies meet their production and assembly deadlines, one of the world’s most advanced locators will be reinforcing Hungary’s defenses by the middle of next year.
The locator will be capable of both air defense and artillery tracking. This is a key element of the Iron Dome system, where the ELM-2084 system provides anti-aircraft weapons personnel and computers with the information they need to destroy targets.
The radars, which are also a component of the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system, have a theoretical maximum range of 470 kilometers; some variants can also be used for controlling anti-aircraft missiles and artillery fire. At shorter ranges, these radars can also locate moving artillery shells with a precision of 0.3 percent.
