They are pics, I believe, of an undamaged Saar 5, sailing. The confusion came in due to the stain marks near one of the aft dishcarge ports on the vessel. Those stains from the discharge, were confused for scrorch marks from battle damage...but they are not. I believe that is how it happened.
A hit at the helo pad would most likely take out port and starboard steering gears. Basically hydraulic systems are used to turn the rudder. It could also effect the stern tubes for the screw shafts causing massive flooding. The reason the bodies were not found then likely was because of damage control procedures of securing flooded compartments. If they got it to a dry dock they could pump it out and recover their dead. They likely knew where they were but could not have a visual. By most Naval protocols that is still considered missing.
I think {not sure though} the engine rooms themselves were likely spared they should be further fwd closer to mid ship. The screws and rudder would be roughly under the helo pad set back about 10-15 or so feet toward the bow. If the pad and the steering gears is all they lost below decks they came out lucky damage wise. There's not much that far aft below decks though on most ships except storage and what I mentioned above.
On July 14, 2006, while enforcing a blockade off Beirut the INS Hanit was attacked by Hezbollah, apparently using a C-802 missile. The ship suffered damage near the helicopter landing pad (or, according to the press conference, near the bridge) and was on fire for several hours and temporarily lost its ability to steer. Four sailors were killed, and the ship returned to Ashdod for repairs.
According the the Israeli Navy, the ship's sophisticated automatic missile defense system was intentionally disabled. This was done for two reasons, one, there were many Israeli Air Force aircraft conducting operations in the vicinity of the ship and it was feared that the system may accidently be triggered by a friendly aircraft, potentially shooting it down. Second, there was no intelligence pointing to the fact that such a sophisticated missile, roughly equivalent to the American Harpoon, was deployed in Lebanon by Hezbollah.
Sa'ar 5 (Hebrew: סער 5) is a class of Israeli Navy missile boat, designed based on lessons learnt from the Sa'ar 4.5 class ships. Three Sa'ar 5 ships were built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (formerly Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi) for the Israeli Navy, based on Israeli designs.
The first of class, INS Eilat, was launched in February 1993, followed by INS Lahav in August 1993 and INS Hanit in March 1994.
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