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Wonder what kind of ship this is? Didnt this have the Barak anti-missile system on board?? Why are Isreali ships being hit by missiles? What happened to ECM on board these vessels? Ridiculous on the part of the israeli navy to loose a ship.

The disaster that overtook one of the Israeli Navy’s state of the art warships, Ahi-Hanit, was thoroughly planned in advance by an enemy which managed to take Israel’s military commanders by surprise.

It has shocked Israel’s military to a degree comparable to the profound effect on US forces of al Qaeda’s 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Aden.

The Saar-5 class corvette, with a crew of 61 seamen and a 10-man helicopter crew, was hit Friday, July 17 at 20:15 hours, while shelling Beirut international airport. Four crewmen were reported missing. One was found dead Saturday aboard the crippled ship. Three are still sought by rescue teams.

DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that the warship was struck from Beirut by an Iran-made C-802 shore-to-sea missile of the Silkworm family.

Weighing 715 kilos, with a range of 120km, the missile is armed with a strong anti-jamming capability, which lends it a 98% success rate in escaping interception.

The Israeli ship is armed with an advanced Barak anti-missile system, which may have missed the incoming missile. Israeli military planners must now look at the vulnerability of the navy following the appearance of the first Iranian C-802 missiles ...

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1184

My guess is that they got in too close to shore. The defense systems, Phalanx, Goalkeeper, RAM or most likely the Barak all take a second or two to pick the missile out from the background clutter, lock on, and shoot. If you are too close to the beach missile hits you before the Antimissile system can do its job. From the video I saw that purported to be the actual hit, the sight was in Hebrew so I didn't understand a word they were saying, but the vid was cool, it looks like they only a few hundred yards off the beach.

From http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/c-802.htm

"Since the missile has a small radar reflectivity and is only about five to seven meters above the sea surface when it attacks the target, and since its guidance equipment has strong anti-jamming capability, target ships have a very low success rate in intercepting the missile. The hit probability of the Yingji-802 is estimated to be as high as 98 percent. The Yingji-802 can be launched from airplanes, ships, submarines and land-based vehicles, and is considered along with the US "Harpoon" as among the best anti-ship missiles of the present-day world."

Ridiculous on the part of the israeli navy to loose a ship.

They didn't loose the ship, it was damaged, which makes me doubt the missile was a C-802. A corvette-sized ship would take some serious damage from a 165 kg warhead, and this missile also requires a fair amount of infrastructure. Two guys don't just carry one down to the beach and fire it.

"Didn' this have the Barak anti-missile system on board??"

If you read to the continuation of the article it states that this ship had a lot of sophisticated equipment on board. They did not have the defensive stuff turned on because they did not expect anything like this. Underestimate the enemy, learn the hard way. Bet it doesn't happen again.

In a linked article, I read that the Arab League voted unanimously to have the UN get involved. One delegate also indicated it was wrong for Hezbollah to do what they did, his position was supported by Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, and get this--The Palastinian Authority. Several other interesting linked articles there.