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Pictures have emerged showing the Israeli Navy corvette Eliat (first ship of the Sa'ar 5 class) fitted for the first time with the new AESA radar MF-STAR by IAI. The MF-STAR - Multi-Function Surveillance, Track and Guidance Radar was fitted as part of an upgrade program for the 3 vessels of the class. Saar 5 class corvette Eilat fitted with the new IAI Elta EL / M-2248 MF-STAR (forward mast) The three Sa'ar 5 corvettes were built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in the USA for the Israeli Navy, based on an Israeli design. They are the largest surface warships in...

It was only last Saturday that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a two-day conference attended by officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, called on the Islamic world to mobilize and wipe out Israel. Less than a week later we see the results of this conference.

A missile fired by Hezbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon, the army said Saturday. Elite Iranian troops helped fire the missile... One sailor was killed and three were missing. The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102 at the ship late Friday. The official added that the troops involved in firing the missile are from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite corps of more than 200,000 fighters that...

The remains of three missing Israel Defense Forces soldiers who disappeared when their warship was attacked by Hezbollah off the coast of Lebanon were found Sunday aboard the damaged vessel, military officials said. The body of a fourth soldier hurt in the attack was identified Saturday as Staff Sergeant Tal Amgar, 21, from Ashdod. The three soldiers have been named as Sergeant Yoni Hershkovitz, 21, from Haifa; Corporal Shai Atias, 19, from Rishon Letzion and First Staff Sergeant Dov Shteinshos, 37, from Carmiel. The incident occurred close to 8 P.M., west of Beirut, when the INS Spear, a Saar-5 Class...

Here are the first pictures I am aware of of the damaghed IDF Naval vessel, the Saar 5. Fron these pictures, it is clear that the ship was hit at an angle that would have allowed the CIWS to engage if it was active. I am now leaning towards the systems not being engaged at the time of attack. IMHO, if true, as some reports have indicated today (buit that I did not want to believe), it would be a fatal and inexcusable mistake in the environment the vessel found itself in...defending other IDF gunboats against air attack during shore...

On July 14th the IDF's best anti-air defense vessel was mission killed by a strike from shore off the Beruit, Lebannon coast. It appears that the vessel was hit by a guided missile, launched either by Iranian trained Hezbollah, or by Iranian Guards themselves operating out of Lebannon. Land-launched Chinese anti-shipping missile, C-802 The missile was apparently a Chinese-made C-802 which is a sub sonic surface to surface anti-shipping missile. The Iranians have purchased a lot of these from China, and is working with N. Korea to improve the design. The missile is capable of a sea-skimming approach, and reportedly...