Excellent. Defense Update, the long-standing supersite devoted to Israeli military gear, now has a blog. Here’s a taste — its take on the Hezbollah missile (not drone) attack:
Apparently, two missiles were launched toward the Israel Navy Ship (INS) Hanit (Spear), SAAR V class corvette patrolling the Lebanese coast 16 kilometers from the shore. The attack was a coordinated, simultaneous high/low attack — the first high missile passed over the Israeli ship. Missing the target, it continued flying, hitting and sinking a civilian Egyptian ship cruising 60 kilometers from the shore. The second missile followed a sea-skimming flight profile hitting the Israeli vessel at the stern, killing four sailors and setting the flight deck on fire and crippling the propulsion systems inside the hull.
The simultaneous attack was probably using two techniques as well, ensuring maximum chances of success. The first missiles was apparently used as a radar-guided bait. seducing the ship to deploy its defensive systems against it, focusing all the attention on the obvious threat while the second sea-skimming missile closing below. A supporting fact for this assumption is the fact that the first missile locked on the unfortunate Egyptian ship 44 kilometers away, as it was the next visible target in its flightpath. The second, missile could have been guided by radar or, more probably, Electro-optically. This method would require the launch of two types of missiles, a C-801/802 for the high profile and a C-701 TV guided missile for the low profile.
I’m a little curious about the whole Egyptian ship being hit or sunk business. An unnamed IDF source is quoted by Reuters Jerusalem office as asserting that Hizbullah hit an Egyptian ship and this has been passed around the blogosphere.
However, there has not been one single story that I can find in the non-Israeli ME or Egyptian press regarding this presumed incident, nor any reaction from an Egyptian official, nor any Western press reportage that would back this up in any concrete way. The story was released the day that the Israeli Corvette was hit — and was quite possibly standard MI disinformation.
I’d certainly be interested if you could shed some more light on this.
FYI:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071500593.html
You asked for confirmation — here is the Reuter’s story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060715/wl_nm/mideast_egypt_ship_dc
Thanks for the link. However, it directly contradicts large parts of the blog post that you excerpted. Firstly, MENA reports that it was Israeli fire that damaged the ship, which safely made it to port in Syria. Secondly, if the ship was caught in cross-fire then it must have been between the Israeli corvette and the Lebanese Coast and not some 40km further out to sea; this tends to put the blog post in the realms of making shit up.
Obviously as the ship managed to steam on to Syria without casualties, it would suggest that it was not hit by a missile.
So — no Egyptian ship sunk, but damaged in crossfire, with the source of the fire that damaged it in question, but more likely to be Israeli than Hizbullah. As I said in my earlier post — there’s a fair bit of disinformation flying around.
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.
Just to clarify some of the minor facts (per Wikipedia):
The “merchant ship” was registered in Cambodia, but sailing under an Egyptian Flag. The ship sank in minutes but the crew escaped in lifeboats. The cargo was several hundred tons of concrete so it was a very small cargo vessel. The crew was picked up by a passing ship.
>…if the ship was caught in cross-fire …
The Egyptian article states: “It (the ship) was hit and it was damaged,” Hadidi added, saying it appeared the vessel was caught in crossfire”. Since the purpose of the Israel ships is a naval blockade the likelyhood of two ships being in the 16 kilometer zone between Lebanon and the blockade , with one boat on its way to Syria, is at best “dubious”. The 60 km listed in the Israeli version is a safe distance beyond the blockade. The possibility that the Israeli ship was confused and fired out to sea is unlikely.
Further, The boat was sunk not “damaged” and there is no evidence (and little likehood) of crossfire.
On this basis I would view the Israeli version as more accurate and much more plausible.
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