Sa'ar 5-class corvette

Sa'ar 5 (Hebrew: סער 5) is a class of Israeli Navy corvette, 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 Sa'ar 5 ships are considered the Israeli fleet's most advanced surface ships, costing US$260 million each.

The first of class, INS Eilat, was launched in February 1993, followed by INS Lahav in August 1993 and INS Hanit in March 1994.

Combat history

On July 14, 2006, while enforcing a blockade off Beirut, the INS "Hanit" was attacked by Hezbollah, using an Iranian version of the Chinese C-802 missile. An explosion caused the landing pad to cave in and be engulfed in flames that threatened the aviation fuel storage below, and the flames were not fully extinguished until several hours later. The ship suffered some damage, but stayed afloat, got itself out of the line of fire, and made the rest of the journey back to Ashdod for repairs on its own. [cite news|title=Strike on Israeli Navy Ship |date=2006-07-19|publisher=NAVSEA|url=http://www.dcfp.navy.mil/mc/articles/other/INSHanit.htm] . Four IDF personnel were killed.

An investigation into the incident by the Israeli Navy concluded that the missile was indeed a C-802 which hit a crane in the rear of the ship, that the ship's radar was not fully functional at the time, that both the ECM and the Barak anti-missile systems were in a two-minute stand-by mode and that the ship's captain was not aware of that fact. [cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785086.html|title=Missile attack on INS Spear: IDF probe faults navy, ship's crew|author=Amos Harel|publisher=haaretz.com|date=November 9, 2006|accessdate=2008-02-16]

ee also

*Sa'ar 4-class missile boat
*Sa'ar 4.5-class missile boat
*Israeli Sea Corps

References

External links

* [http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/saar5/ Naval Technology]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/eilat-specs.htm Global Security]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/mideast/israel.htm Hazegray]
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=738611&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0 Ha'aretz: 4 soldiers missing after naval vessel hit off Beirut coast]
* [http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/naval/saar5/Saar5.html Israeli-Weapons]