The ships' design is loosely based on the German Braunschweig-class corvette, but with engineering changes to accommodate Israeli-built sensors and missiles such as the Barak 8[4] and the naval Iron Dome system.

[9][10] The Sa'ar 6 has been adopted for maritime protection, anti-shipping and prevent threats in the Israeli exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The Sa'ar 6 is also used to defend Israeli shipping lanes in the Mediterranean to import more than 90 percent of goods for Israel.

[11] One of their roles will be to protect natural gas platforms in the Mediterranean Sea against possible seaborne terrorism attacks or rocket threats.

It is armed with an Oto Melara 76 mm main gun, two Typhoon Weapon Stations, 32 vertical launch cells for Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles, 40 cells for the C-Dome point defense system, 16 anti-ship missiles Gabriel V,[12][13] the EL/M-2248 MF-STAR AESA radar, and two 324 mm (12.8 in) torpedo launchers.