INS Hanit

The INS "Hanit" (translated as "Spear") is a Sa'ar 5-class corvette of the Israeli Navy that was built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in 1994. On July 14, 2006, it suffered damage after being attacked by Hezbollah, apparently by a C-802 anti-ship missile.

Attack on July 14, 2006

During the 2006 Lebanon War, the vessel was patrolling in Lebanese waters ten nautical miles off the coast of Beirut. It was damaged on July 14, 2006 on the waterline, under the aft superstructure cite news|title=Hezbollah missile hits Navy ship off Beirut coast|date=2006-07-14|publisher=Haaretz|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/738695.html] cite news|title=Missile, Not Drone, Hit Israeli Warship|date=2006-07-15|publisher=The Guardian|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5952824,00.html] by a missile (likely a Chinese-designed C-802 or the smaller C-701cite news|title=INS Hanit Suffers Iranian Missile Attack |date=2006-07-16|publisher=Defense Update|url=http://www.defense-update.com/2006/07/ins-hanit-suffers-iranian-missile.html] ) fired by Hezbollah. Reportedly, setting the flight deck on fire and crippling the propulsion systems inside the hullcite news|title=INS Hanit Suffers Iranian Missile Attack |date=2006-07-16|name=defenceupdate|publisher=Defense Update|url=http://www.defense-update.com/2006/07/ins-hanit-suffers-iranian-missile.html] . However, INS Hanit 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 crew members were killed during the attack. [cite news|title=Middle East Crisis: Hezbollah-Israel conflict wrap |date=2006-07-15|publisher=Spero News|url=http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=4398]

According to the Israeli Navy, the ship's sophisticated automatic missile defense system was not deployed, even though the early warning system is usually deployed during peace-time wargames. Israel said the defense system was not deployed because of Israeli aircraft in the area. In the aftermath of the event, reports suggested that no known intelligence existed which would have pointed to the fact that such a sophisticated missile was deployed in Lebanon by Hezbollah. In fact, the investigative work of Ha'aretz journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff showed that a certain Colonel K., an intelligence officer, had given a lecture already on April 21, 2003, predicting that Hezbollah had shore-to-sea missiles in its possession. Furthermore, on the morning of Friday, July 14, 2006, one of the branch heads of naval intelligence, Lieutenant-Colonel Y. briefed the head of naval intelligence, Colonel Ram Rothberg, telling him that "ships enforcing Israel's naval blockade on Hezbollah should take into account the possibility of a C-802 missile being fired on them." The assessment, however, did not result in a warning. If such a warning had been issued, Israeli ships would have moved further away from the shore and activated their anti-missile systems. [Citation
last1 = Harel| first1 = Amos
last2 = Issacharoff| first2 = Avi
title = How the navy missed its boat
newspaper = Ha'aretz English
date = 2008-01-18
year = 2008
url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/945846.html ]

As a result of the incident, two navy officers, two junior officers and the commander of the ship have been formally reprimanded and repositioned to non-commanding positions on land. One of the junior officers had shut down the central radar and parts of the defence system without notifying the commander, in the belief that the ship was not under threat.cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Hanan|date=2007-01-01|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3347191,00.html|title=Officers reprimanded over Hanit vessel incident|publisher=YnetNews]

Repairs occurred over many months and the ship was said to be "recently put back into operation" according to a late 2007 report. [ [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3458845,00.html Exclusive: Photos of navy ship hit during war revealed] . YnetNews. 10.11.07]

IDF report

An IDF report on the Lebanon war incident reveals that the crew did not act sufficiently in order to anticipate the threat.

The IDF report, which was submitted to Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, said, "as far as the intelligence picture is concerned, it was found that despite the lack of pinpoint information about the weapon in the hands of Hezbollah, there was information in the Navy in the past that could have led to some type of an assessment that the enemy holds shore-to-ship missiles." In addition, failures were uncovered in "the way the forces understood the operative reality and implemented it." cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Hanan|date=2006-11-07|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3325146,00.html|title=Report: Ship crew didn't realize missile threat|publisher=YnetNews]

The Israeli military has alleged that Iranian military advisors from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had assisted with deploying and readying the missile launcher.cite web|last=Gardner|first=Frank|date=2006-08-03|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5242566.stm|title=Hezbollah missile threat assessed|publisher=BBC]

ee also

*Israeli Sea Corps
*2006 Lebanon War
*C-802

References

External links

* [http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/saar5/ Eilat Class Sa'ar 5 Multi-Mission Corvettes, Israel]