Posted on 07/15/2006 9:46:02 AM PDT by shield
JERUSALEM — The bodies of two of the four Israeli soldiers missing in a Hezbollah attack on their warship off Lebanon were found Saturday aboard the damaged vessel, military officials said.
The ship was severely damaged Friday either by a drone loaded with explosives or a missile fired by Hezbollah as the Israeli navy blockaded Lebanon as part of its military offensive against the guerrillas.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
What kind of crazy headline is that?
Ask FoxNews...it's their headline...I didn't change a word of it...go ask them.
This article's use of the word "soldiers" to describe crew members on a naval vessel is very confusing.
The system may have been broken. IME It was a hard system to keep fully functional back in the 1980s USN especially on ships that only had one system - if a ship had two systems it could use the functional system to help trobleshoot the balky system.
I read elsewhere that the ship was facing out to sea to protect against the threat of a Syrian jet attack. This meant the Phalanx was facing away from the shoreline from where the ASCM was launched and hence could not engage. Also, Hizbollah was not known to possess such ASCM weaponry before yesterday. More poor intelligence.
Many are, including this class of ships.
Thanks! Since I wrote that, I've seen the photos...
Reportedly there were Israeli aircraft in the Vicinity. You wouldn't want an "own goal", so you have to keep the Phalanx in standby, or at least in "weapons tight" mode. Meaning requiring human intervention to allow it to fire. With no intell that the Hez had anything that could reach out as far as they were, and with their stern to the beach, they may very well not have had time enough to bring the Phalanx on line and turn the ship so it could bear on the threat.
Like the Canadians, the Israelis use the same rank titles for their maritime and air components as for their army. (At least I think the Canucks still do it. I know the Canadian Liaison detachment who my Air Force unit shared space with did not like it at all, they preferred the RAF style rank titles, but that was 33 years ago. )
Friendly aircraft operating in the area. They wouldn't want to score an "own goal". Especially when there was no information that the Hez had any weapons which could threaten them from the shore.
that is what I figured. OOPS
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