....Silkworm Missile Posted on 07/15/2006 9:36:19 AM PDT by radar101
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
The Israeli chief of staff, Lt.Gen. Dan Halutz, started his news conference Friday night just 15 minutes earlier at 20:00. The campaign was then 60 hours old from the moment Hizballah raiders captured two Israel soldiers in an ambush inside Israel. He was poised, assured and clear, until a reporter asked if the military goals of the Lebanese offensive matched the objectives set out in government decisions. His answer was: “Don’t start looking for cracks.”
But Hizballah found the cracks 15 minutes later. Its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah put in a telephone appearance on Al Manar TV straight after General Halutz to inform his listeners across the Middle East that one of Israel’s warships was ablaze at that very moment. He said the ship had been crippled while it was bombing Beirut and was sinking. Hizballah, he added, had prepared a number of surprises for Israel and its armed forces Despite several Israeli air raids, the station is still broadcasting.
In Israel, the Hizballah chief’s words were taken at first as an implausible threat for the future – until the order of events began to unfold.
DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal:
Shortly before 20:00 hours Friday, Hizballah launched a pair of land-to-sea C-802 missiles against the Israeli ship from the coast of Beirut. The trajectory of the first was adjusted to a landing amidships from above. It missed and exploded in the water. The second was rigged to skim the water like a cruise missile. It achieved a direct hit of the Ahi Hanit’s helicopter deck, starting a fire. The ship began to sink, as Nasrallah said, and would have been lost were it not for the speed and bravery of crewmen who jumped into the flames and doused them before the ship exploded and sank.
It is not known whether the men dead and missing paid with their lives for saving the ship.
This was the second time in 48 hours that the Israeli high command was taken by unawares.
July 12, the day that Hizballah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, was also the deadline for Iran to deliver its answer to the six-power package of incentives for giving up its nuclear enrichment program. Tehran let the day go by without an answer. Someone should have kept an eye on Iran’s Lebanese surrogate and made the connection with a fresh virulent threat against Israel from Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, the high alert declared earlier this month for Israeli units on the Lebanese border was not restored.
The Hizballah guerrillas took advantage of this lack of vigilance to infiltrate Israel near Zarit, penetrate to a distance of 200 meters, fire RPGs and roadside bombs at two Israeli Hammer jeeps on patrol, and make off with Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Eight Israeli soldiers lost their lives as a result of this attack.
The IDF ground pursuit for the two men was cut short when an Israeli tank was blown up by a massive 300-kilo bomb in south Lebanon, killing the four-man crew and a fifth soldier who tried to rescue his comrades.
The attack on the Ahi-Hanit was the third surprise.
When General Halutz was asked if Israel does not fear Syrian and Iranian intervention in the hostilities, he replied firmly in the negative. But Iran has been involved from the very first moment.
This localized perception of the Just Reward campaign in Lebanon, contrary to Israeli leaders’ rhetoric, is hampering its effectiveness. The war embarked on Wednesday night, July 12, must be seen in its regional strategic dimensions. It is therefore not enough to bash Nasrallah without taking into account beforehand that his strings are pulled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad from Tehran and the Syrian president Bashar Assad, who opened up Damascus military airport for the delivery of Iranian missiles to his militia.
Saturday morning, Hizballah TV broadcast a videotape showed a blurred object looking like a small unmanned aircraft purportedly packed with explosives exploding in the water. This was an attempt to muddy the trail leading to Tehran and present the fatal attack as an extraordinary feat of arms by Hizballah. It was also another move in and intense psychological war to undermine Israeli morale. The inference they are trying to get across is that if the Shiite terrorists have a weapon that can hit a moving target at sea, the will not find it hard to reach any part of Israel including Tel Aviv.
....Silkworm Missile
....SAAR Israeli Ship SEE: http://www.jjma.com/Documents/Services/ShipDesign/intnat/saar5.htm
This is concrete evidence that Iranian Revolutionary Guards are involved in that missle shooting. Iran has in fact, not just in word, declared itself at war with Israel.
The missile shown is a C801 or C802. It is much more likely that the C801/2 was used. It is smaller and much easier to support/fire.
A gross lack of knowledge of military munitions by the journalists overthere. The continue to call all rockets used "katushas". The only common thing is that they were unguided. Obviously a similar thing is happening here.
Appears that the C801/2 must be pretty mobile, caught the Israelies off guard.
These missiles have to be transported from their storage areas to their firing points. Even if they are moved at night, Israel should be able to detect them with her air assets and FLIR technology. The thing to do is track them back to the source and eradicate the "nest".
I've heard nothing about any anti-air capability the terrorists might have; I'd have expected a few Israeli warplanes to have had some (at least) near misses from SAM launches.
Any traffic larger than an auto moving at night should be a legitimate target for the IAF.
Search is your friend.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1666151/posts
The Israelis will be making a grave strategic error if they do not respons harshly to this. I suggest they simply render the coastline of Lebanon uninhabitable -- using white phosphorus and napalm -- to a depth of 25 miles or so from the waterline. That ought to thin the bastards out a bit.
As for us, we must learn from this example. Tactical doctrine in our own Navy must be adjusted away from Soviet-style saturation air attack and submarne wafare to anticipate the Islamists' tactics of asymmetrical sea warfare. The threat to our ships will not come from other ships -- it will be small, highly mobile teams of shore-bound missile troops, who will fire at our ships and fade into the scenery before our sensors can acquire them. Again, the solution is to "sterilize" the littoral areas adjacent to our naval AO, first by intensive air attack, then by occupation on the ground. We should also be gearing up quick-reaction strike teams that can rapidly launch from our ships and take out enemy missile squads as they are detected. More drone sureveillance of littoral eareas is a must!
Seriously, can someone document an accurate report from DEBKA? They are uncannily wrong. Are they a bunch of teenagers blogging in a basement somewhere?
Their accurate reports are cribbed off of a newswire or cable channel - or from some sort of press conference in Israel. They don't actually break any accurate news.
That they don't know what a Silkworm is is an indication that there isn't a single person working for DUMBKA that has any knowledge about anything military. I mean, 5 seconds of web searching or a copy of Jane's in their office would have told them the C-802 is not a Silkworm and is very different from a Silkworm.
Yeah, water in the form of an Egyptian vessel.
The naval missile tech arms race is not something you can just change on a dime. It happens 10 years in advance. Clinton helps Russia missile tech who helps China who helps Iran who helps Hezbollah who hits Israel.
Wrong answer. Should have used...
Why we wait until they are better equipped to face us in the big, inevitable showdown has got to be the biggest mystery of this generation.
Is it really July 17 aleady over there?
I would expect a better response from the Israeli Navy if any subsequent attacks occur. With the size of the weapon it will be hard to target this weapon system prior to launch.
I suspect it did not hit it, but was a near miss. That's a pretty big missile and a moderate sized ship. While tragic, the loss of 4 crewmen is hardly a "success".
Sorry- I put in the headline, hit search, and nothing showed.
Sorry if I offended.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.