UPDATE 07/15/06 11:19 AM: There’s an old saw about war: that first reports are always wrong. Looks like that the case about this unmanned plane attack. “A missile fired by Hezbollah, not an unmanned drone laden with explosives, damaged an Israeli warship off Lebanon,” Fox News reports.
The attack on Friday night had raised widespread concern in the Israeli military because initial information indicated that the guerrillas had used a drone for the first time to attack Israeli forces.
But the army’s investigation into the attack, which left four Israeli sailors missing, showed that Hezbollah had fired an Iranian-made missile at the vessel from the shores of Lebanon, said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan.
“We can confirm that it was hit by an Iranian-made missile launched by Hezbollah. We see this as very profound fingerprint of Iranian involvement in Hezbollah,” Nehushtan said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Another Hezbollah missile also hit and sank a nearby civilian merchant ship at around the same time, Nehushtan said. He said that ship apparently was Egyptian, but he had no other information about it.
UPDATE 07/15/06 12:29 PM: Bill Roggio is now throwing cold water on the missile theory. “The use of a ground based anti-ship missile system in these attacks, while certainly a possibility, is unlikely as the characteristics of this system would certainly have been detected by the Israeli Defense Forces,” he writes. “A UAV launched missile system, on the other hand, would be a more stealthy system. The UAVs are difficult to detect as they can fly in below radar, [and] can be flown by remote visual methods.“
Stay tuned.
“An unmanned Hezbollah aircraft rigged with explosives slammed into an Israeli warship late Friday, causing heavy damage to the vessel,” the AP reports. It’s the first time the terrorist group — any terrorist group — has used a drone in combat, as far as I know.
Hezbollah has flown simple “Misrad-1″ unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, twice before, in November 2004 and April 2005. But those were reconnaissance flights, last just a couple of minutes each. And the drones were spotted fairly quickly, both times.
But, as Defense Tech noted in the Spring, the UAV had the potential to be much, much worse — “a suicide bomber on steroids, basically.“
That’s what seems to have happened around 8:30pm Friday night to a Saar 5 navy gunship, ten miles off of the Lebanese coast, according to Ynetnews.
It was reported that the stern of an Israeli navy war ship suffered a direct hit in an attack by Hizbullah, which damaged the helicopter landing pad area. The hit caused a conflagration, which was extinguished. No one was hurt in the fire.
Shortly afterwards, crewmembers assessed the damage to the ship and discovered the hit was more severe than originally thought, and had caused damage to the ships internal operating systems…
Four crewmembers are reported to be missing.
There’s more than bit of irony in Israel being hit with drone attacks. For years, the Israeli military was the world’s leader in unmanned aviation. During the first Gulf War, Iraqi troops surrendered to Israel-made, American-run Pioneer UAVs. U.S. Army drone mechanics had to learn Hebrew, to repair their Israeli drones.
But in recent years, the rest of the world has caught up. “Some 32 nations are developing or manufacturing more than 250 models” of UAVs, according to the Defense Department.
In response, Pentagon extreme science arm Darpa has launched a $5 million per year effort to build a drone-killing UAV. But the results of that effort are still years away. For now, more conventional methods will have to be used to guard against terrorists’ robotic air force.
(Big ups: SMT)
Photos of the Saar 5 on the net (Israel-Weapons) show it to equipped with CIWS.
Have to wonder why that didn’t detect and engage the drone.
Before this is over, there will be LOTS of interesting things come to light.
It looks like the CIWS is optional on Saar 5’s. The sources I can find say that the Saar 5 is equipped with the CIWS OR a 76mm gun. So it’s possible that the Hanit was carrying the 76mm and didn’t have the CIWS. Also the reports are the the UAV hit the stern, the CIWS is mounted near the bow, so it’s likely the UAV was being flown outside the firing arc of the CIWS.
The merchant ship was a different incident. It was aparently hit by a rocket aimed at warships at around the same time that the INS Hanit was hit by the UAV.
Lets not get into the Iowa thing agian here. Leave it for the next DD-1000 article.
If you’re surprised, the best defence in the world isn’t doing a hell of a lot. My guess is the crew had no prior warning about possibly-armed UAVs and they mistook the drone for one of theirs (or an anomoly) until too late.
…Israel could be surprised by a UAV? …given that Israel themselves achieved technological surprise with UAVs in the Six Day War?
Just goes to show they weren’t caught in that well known pitfall of planning for the last war.
And what of the Phalanx, tracking radar etc. etc. All useless? This is a Northrop Grumman warship.
If only Americans knew the quality of technical decisionmaking that goes into our defense. Still, that’s what secrecy is for. God help us all.
BTW Noah, have you ever wondered where those 1967 Israeli UAVs came from? …and why we were using Israeli drones in the Gulf War?
This is nothing surprising, and I thought some one would do it some day. It was concerning when some idiot on Defense Tech posted a comment somewhere, if my memory is correct, to use UAVs as bomb loaded platform to engage in a suicide bombing mission. When you post an idea on the Internet, someone will see it, and pass it down to unwanted people. Meanwhile, I have also heard similar ideas posted on Islamist websites to use unmanned platform to use against the coalition force in Iraq. The good news is that these platforms are not perfect. I am going to keep my mouth shut for that, and hope others to shut their mouth too.
Update on suicide UAV incident:
Body of one of the four missing Israeli sailors found — BBC via Israeli radio
what did i miss?
they got missile defense, but seem to be unable to cope with slow UAVs?
Current theory now is that it was an Iranian supplied Styx or Silkworm ASM, not a UAV carrying explosives.
Just one more reason not to attack Iran! “Current theory now is that it was an Iranian supplied Styx or Silkworm ASM” Wait, how about an Israeli/US special forces team launching an Iranian Missile at an Israeli ship to start a war with Iran? Remember the USS Liberty?
I think you have your tin-foil hat on to tight…
A first point, i really can not understand why Israel has the right to buy advance weaponry and Lebanon, or the occupied Palestinian teritories do not. My best proposal is let both Palestinians and Israelis buy some weapons and let them sort out the situation by them selves. We are geting tired by this conflict. Does n’t it sound fair enough?
Nevertheless on the topic: i think that the second hit merchant ship points to an automatically radar or IR guided missile launch, in which one of them lost its lock, and not to a visually/IR guided drone. I am also quite surpised how the Israelis manage to not avoid the hit — in any case even without the Phalanx the 76mm gun should be quite capable to take out the drone, it has a 60 to 120 rounds/minute rate.
Actually, if there is anything positive to come out of this mess, it will be the knowledge of Iranian technology and techniques that are deplyed vis-a-vis Hezbollah. We (US) may actually learn what to expect if we do have to take on Iran and have given some thoughts on counter-tactics.
HEY,give war a chance
Or is it that the IDF is so stupid, lazy and lo tech as to let one of its state of the art ships get hit by an Iranian missile? When America loses an aircraft carrier or two to an Iranian flying missile boat, I will bust up my VCR copy of “Top Gun” into 100 pieces, Sorry Duke the Ace, I mean Convict! Then when the Iranian Cells in America start renovating our shopping malls with their backpacks on. I will be saddened but I will still say I told you so! Shalom!
Isn’t a UAV that blows up upon arrival pretty much the definition of a cruise missile?
Hi Tech, Low Tech, US and Israeli pilots are a bunch of Baby Killers! Who, when they are flying are tough guys but when they are shot down become Homos! Add to the list the Coward Hezbollah Missile and Rocket boys too.
THE INTERESTING THING HERE IS THAT FACT THAT THE CHINESE MISSLE THAT HIT THE ISREALI SHIP IS MOST LIKLY A COPY OF A U.S. HARPOON DEVELOPED FROM TECHNOLOGY SUPPLIED TO THE CHINESE FROM ISREAL. THERE MAY BE A DAY WHEN THE ISREALI AIR FORCE WILL BE FIGHTING CHINESES J-10 WITH PYTHON 3 COPIES OVER SYRIA.
Believe in GOD. that’s thr problem with the west, they put on the dollar IN GOD WE TRUST but none beleive in GOD. out of the subject ? nope! in Islam we say: “even when you hit, as much as you hit, GOD is the one who hits and not you.“
Salam ^_–
It looks like the CIWS is optional on Saar 5’s. The sources I can find say that the Saar 5 is equipped with the CIWS OR a 76mm gun. So it’s possible that the Hanit was carrying the 76mm and didn’t have the CIWS. Also the reports are the the UAV hit the stern, the CIWS is mounted near the bow, so it’s likely the UAV was being flown outside the firing arc of the CIWS.
there are more wholesale things,then we are waitting for you to welecome here shopping!