INS Hanit

INS Hanit (Hebrew: חנית‎, Spear) is a Sa'ar 5-class corvette of the Israeli Navy, built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in 1994. On 14 July 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War, it suffered damage after being struck by a Hezbollah C-802 anti-ship missile.

INS Hanit at Haifa port, May 2010
History
 Israel
Name: Hanit
Namesake: Spear
Builder: Northrop Grumman by Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down: 5 April 1993
Launched: 5 March 1994
Commissioned: 7 February 1995
Status: Active
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type: Sa'ar 5-class corvette
Displacement:
Length: 85.64 m (280.97 ft)
Beam: 11.88 m (38.98 ft)
Draft: 3.45 m (11.32 ft)
Propulsion:
Speed:
Range: 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km)
Complement:
  • 64 officers and crewmen
  • 10 aircrew
Sensors and
processing systems:
Electronic warfare
& decoys:
Armament:
Aircraft carried: Eurocopter Panther
Aviation facilities: Helipad and helicopter hangar

Attack on 14 July 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 14 July 2006 on the waterline, under the aft superstructure[1][2] by a missile (likely a Chinese-designed C-802[3]) fired by Hezbollah that reportedly set the flight deck on fire and crippled the propulsion systems inside the hull.[4] However, INS Hanit stayed afloat, withdrew and made the rest of the journey back to Ashdod port for repairs under its own power.[5] Four crew members were killed during the attack: Staff Sergeant Tal Amgar, Corporal Shai Atas, Sergeant Yaniv Hershkovitz, and First Sergeant Dov Steinshuss.[6]

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. 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 an intelligence officer identified only as Colonel K. had given a lecture on 21 April 2003, predicting that Hezbollah possessed shore-to-sea missiles. Furthermore, on the morning of 14 July 2006 a branch head of naval intelligence described as 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." No warning was issued based on this assessment, however; if it had, Israeli ships would have moved further away from the shore and activated their anti-missile systems.[7]

As a result of the incident, two navy officers, two junior officers and the commander of the ship were 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.[8]

IDF report

An official 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."[9] As there were no perceived missile threats, an officer had left the ship's anti-missile suite disabled, in energy-saving standby-mode, while patrolling near the coast.[10]

The Israeli military alleged that Iranian military advisors from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had assisted with deploying and readying the missile launcher.[11]

Subsequent service

Repairs took months; the ship returned to active service in 2007.[12]

INS Hanit served as Ram Rothberg's command ship during the 2014 Operation Full Disclosure.[13]

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References
  1. "Hezbollah missile hits Navy ship off Beirut coast". Haaretz. 14 July 2006. Archived from the original on 18 July 2006.
  2. "Missile, Not Drone, Hit Israeli Warship". The Guardian. London. 15 July 2006. Archived from the original on 16 July 2006.
  3. Mazzetti, Mark (31 December 2008). "Striking Deep Into Israel, Hamas Employs an Upgraded Arsenal". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  4. "INS Hanit Suffers Iranian Missile Attack". Defense Update. 17 July 2006. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  5. "Strike on Israeli Navy Ship". NAVSEA. 19 July 2006. Archived from the original on 11 February 2007.
  6. "Middle East Crisis: Hezbollah-Israel conflict wrap". Spero News. 15 July 2006. Archived from the original on 4 October 2007.
  7. Harel, Amos; Issacharoff, Avi (18 January 2008). "How the navy missed its boat". Ha'aretz English. Archived from the original on 20 January 2008.
  8. Greenberg, Hanan (1 January 2007). "Officers reprimanded over Hanit vessel incident". YnetNews. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  9. Greenberg, Hanan (7 November 2006). "Report: Ship crew didn't realize missile threat". YnetNews. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  10. Opall-Rome, Barbara, "Israel Navy Faults Humans, Not Technology, for Ship Attack", Springfield Virginia News, Tel Aviv: Defense News
  11. Gardner, Frank (3 August 2006). "Hezbollah missile threat assessed". BBC News. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  12. Greenberg, Hanan (11 October 2007). "Exclusive: Photos of navy ship hit during war revealed". YnetNews. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  13. Yehoshua, Yossi (3 June 2014). בראש הכוח עמדה אח"י חנית שנפגעה בלבנון. Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 17 July 2015.
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