Details of Latakia naval battle

The Battle of Latakia was a naval battle in the fourth Middle East War, which took place on16, 973. This is the first naval battle with missiles as weapons in history.

Name of basic introduction: Battle place of Latakia: coastal time of Latakia, Syria: 1973 10 Sixth participant: Israel, Syria Result: Israel won the battle: 5 Israeli ships.

Five Syrian ships were killed or injured: there were no casualties in Israel.

The main commanders of all the Syrian ships sunk: the background, process, result and background of the battle of Barkai 1973 16 10/3 After years of careful preparation and planning, the Egyptian and Syrian troops launched a large-scale attack on Israeli troops in the north and south directions of Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights by surprise attack under the cover of strong artillery fire. At the beginning of the war, under the sudden attack of the Egyptian and Syrian armies, the Israeli army was panicked and helpless, and it was too late to mobilize its troops and organize a strong counterattack. Only three days after the war broke out, the Egyptian army broke through the Balaf line of the Suez Canal, and the Syrian army also occupied the forefront of the Golan Heights. In the first stage of the war, the land battlefield showed a one-sided trend. A large number of Israeli soldiers were annihilated and more than 300 tanks were lost. The situation is very passive. Mrs Meir, the Israeli Prime Minister, even appealed to the United States, "Israel is finished, save Israel". In order to cooperate with the land war, contain Israeli combat troops, destroy the Israeli navy, attack and destroy ships in Israeli ports and sea passages, and land targets, Egypt and Syria announced a maritime blockade against Israel while launching ground recovery wars. Egypt declared: "The sea area south of 33 degrees north latitude and east of 29 degrees east longitude is a war blockade area." Syria announced to the world: "The sea area north of 33 degrees north latitude and east of 34 degrees east longitude is a maritime blockade area, and every ship of every country sailing in this area should be responsible for its own safety and bear risks." In a blink of an eye, the cloud of war hangs over the Mediterranean, and a naval battle is about to break out. Different from the land battlefield, in September, the Israeli naval intelligence agencies judged from the frequent mobilization of Egyptian and Syrian naval vessels, the mobilization of military materials, and frequent sea exercises that Egypt and Syria might take extraordinary actions against Israel. According to the information provided by office of naval intelligence, the commander of the Israeli navy, Major General Temley, decisively ordered the Israeli navy to enter a state of war on June 1. Although the Intelligence Bureau of Israel's General Command held the opposite attitude towards the decision of the navy, believing that Major General Termure was exaggerating the facts and was neurotic, and that the navy's actions would give Egypt and Syria an excuse to wage war, which would have serious consequences for Israel's national security, and ordered the Israeli navy to be released from the state of war when the war was imminent, Major General Termure resisted the pressure and still insisted on the immediate deployment and deployment of the Israeli navy according to the wartime state. Later facts proved that Major General Temley's decision played an important role in enabling the Israeli navy to launch an attack immediately on the day of the war. 654381In the early morning of October 6, the entire Israeli navy completed its operational deployment and made all preparations for fighting with the Egyptian and Syrian navies. At that time, the naval forces of Egypt, Syria and Israel in the Mediterranean were as follows: Egypt deployed 12 wasp-class missile boats, 12 Soviet mosquito-class missile boats, 6 Sherchin-class torpedo boats, 16D- 183 torpedo boats and 5 T-43 minesweepers. Compared with the number of missile boats in Egypt and Syria, the Israeli navy is much smaller. Israel has only 12 Sal-class missile boats and 2 Leshev-class missile frigates. One of these 14 missile boats can't sail because of factory repairs, and two of them can only be used as gunboats without missiles. Only 1 1 missile boats can be used for missile attacks. The standard displacement of the "Wasp" class missile boats of the Egyptian and Syrian navies is165t, and they are equipped with four Styx anti-ship missiles and two 30mm automatic guns. "Mosquito" class missile boat has a standard displacement of 75 tons, equipped with two Styx anti-ship missiles and L-seat double-mounted 25mm artillery. The maximum speed of these two missile boats can reach 40 knots, and each boat is equipped with 1 missile attack radar without electronic jamming equipment. Judging from the situation at that time, these two kinds of missile boats were relatively advanced. "Styx" anti-ship missile is a product of the former Soviet Union in the 1960s, with a flying altitude of 100 ~ 300m and an effective range of 4.5 ~ 25 nautical miles. This subsonic missile mainly attacks large and medium-sized surface ships, and the hit probability can reach 90% without interference. After the third Middle East War, the Egyptian navy sank the destroyer Eilat with this missile. At that time, * * * fired four missiles, three of which hit the hull, and 1 hit the life raft boarded by the crew after abandoning the ship, which set a precedent for missiles hitting warships and shocked the world. The Sal-class missile boat of the Israeli Navy was refitted from the Sal-A fast patrol boat in the early 1970s. It is divided into Saar -2 and Saar -3, with a standard displacement of 220 tons and a maximum speed of 40 knots. It carries six Gabriel -I anti-ship missiles, all equipped with two 1 2.7mm anti-aircraft guns. The main difference between Saar -2 and Saar -3 is that Saar -2 is equipped with three 40mm automatic guns,1at the bow and two at the stern; "Sal" -3 class replaced 40 mm naval gun with 76 mm naval gun at the bow, which enhanced the attack ability on water targets and shore targets. The "Leshev" class missile frigate was developed by Israel, which has anti-ship operation, anti-submarine warfare capability and good seaworthiness, and is also suitable for formation combat. Large tonnage, standard displacement of 4 15 tons, and maximum speed of 32 knots. It is equipped with six Gabriel -I anti-ship missiles and two 76 mm and 20 mm naval guns. "Gabriel" -I is an anti-ship missile developed by Israel in the 1960s and equipped with the navy. Its characteristic is that it has a good effect on small and fast goals. The missile is guided by semi-active radar, with cruising/terminal flying altitude 100/2.5m, effective range 18km and flying speed of Mach 0.7. In addition, Israel installed passive jamming devices on missile boats for the first time. Before the outbreak of the Fourth Middle East War, Syrian missile boats were mainly deployed in Latakia, while Egyptian missile boats were mainly deployed in Alexandria and Port Said. The Egyptian and Syrian navies' operational attempts are: after declaring a maritime blockade against Israel, they take the initiative to attack, destroy the main warships of the Israeli navy and various ships operating at sea, attack targets on the Israeli shore when necessary, cut off Israel's maritime communication lines, and make it impossible for Israel to obtain all kinds of munitions from the sea. Israel's operational attempt is: once the war breaks out, it will adopt sudden assault tactics, concentrate superior forces, avoid launching maritime battles in two operational directions at the same time, destroy the Egyptian and Syrian navies one by one, first destroy Syrian ships and maritime forces in the waters north of Lebanon and east of the Syrian coast, and then search for and destroy the Egyptian naval missile boat forces in the waters near Port Said. Both sides are gearing up for their own goals and beliefs in order to destroy each other and seize the right to control the sea. During the campaign, at 1 October 6 14, that is, after the fourth Middle East war broke out1hour, a tactical formation of the Israeli navy consisting of five missile boats set off from Haifa Port and began to search and sail northward along the Lebanese coast according to the operational plan. The five missile boats are: Leshev missile frigate, Sal -3 missile boat Gash and hanet, Sal -2 Micner, Sal-1 gunboat Miftah, and they are carrying Gabriel to the ship. The commander of the formation is Balquer, the captain of the Israeli navy, and the command boat is located on the "Leshev". Along with the tactical formation, there are two landing ships, each carrying two helicopters, which serve as reconnaissance, search, early warning and target indication for the maritime formation. The distance from Haifa Port to Latakia Port is about 160 nautical mile. Because of the unknown situation at sea, Captain Barkai commanded the maritime tactical formation to slowly search the sea surface of Latakia at the speed of 12 knots. In order to maintain concealment, the formation was strictly controlled by electromagnetism after leaving the port, and radio silence was maintained during the voyage. The radar of each boat was not allowed to be turned on without the permission of the formation commander. In order to avoid the tracking of Syrian shore-based radar, Israeli tactical formations used to search in the sea outside the effective detection range of Syrian shore-based radar. At around 22: 00 on the 6th, the formation quietly sailed to the sea area 35 nautical miles southwest of Latakia Port, Syria, which is a key prevention area in Syria and may encounter Syrian naval vessels at any time. Barkai ordered the missile boat formation to launch two tactical attack groups according to the operational plan. The first tactical group consists of Mitzi nagel, Gash and harnett, and the second tactical group consists of Mifta and Leshev. Each group forms a separate column. The first group is the main assault force on the left, and the second group is on the right. At the same time of formation tactics, Barkai ordered the helicopter to take off and scout the waters near Latakia. It should be mentioned that the Israeli navy took great pains to deal with missile boats in Egypt and Syria. In 1960s, the destroyer Eilat was sunk by an Egyptian missile without any preparation, because of ignorance of the performance of the Styx anti-ship missile equipped by the Egyptian navy. Since then, in order to speed up the development of anti-ship missiles, especially missile boats in Egypt and Syria, we have vigorously developed anti-small boat missiles that can attack fast and small targets. Soon, 1968, the Gabriel -I anti-ship missile was successfully developed and equipped on the Sal-class missile boat. Although this kind of anti-ship missile has the advantages of high speed, flexibility, low altitude, being difficult to be found and being resisted by artillery, its serious defect is its short range, and its effective range is only half that of Styx anti-ship missile. At that time, when the range problem of Gabriel-1 missile was not solved, the Israeli navy took overcoming the shortcomings of Gabriel missile range as the most important research topic in missile boat tactics. After repeated research and drills, the navy put forward the following points: in combat, first, it is necessary to increase the number of warships through joint air and sea operations, which will cause the greatest difficulty for the other side to identify and judge the target, lure the wrong target to launch missiles in various ways, and then use missile boats to counterattack the target that has launched missiles; The second is to find that the other side uses electronic interference and high-speed maneuver to evade when launching missiles. After receiving the command of Captain Barkai to take off, the helicopter on board formed a column at a height of 50 meters from the sea, imitated the missile boat formation, and flew at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour, entering the warning detection area of Syrian shore-based radar. Don't underestimate the tactical actions of Israeli helicopters. Israel wants to achieve two purposes through this tactical action: one is reconnaissance and vigilance, and the other is a trick to lure the enemy. If the Syrian shore-based radar finds a helicopter group, it will misjudge it as a missile boat formation from the screen and induce Syrian missile boats to launch missiles at the helicopters. Once the Syrian missile boat launched the missile, the Israeli missile boat was out of radar detection range. As the helicopter formation entered the Syrian shore-based radar detection area, Captain Barkai ordered the formation to break the radio silence, the radar turned on to search the nearby waters, and the formation entered the first-class combat readiness state. At 2228 hours, the missile escort boat Leshev found a small target outside the 330-degree 50 chain, and Balquer immediately ordered the first assault group to destroy it. It turns out that this is a torpedo speedboat patrolled by the Syrian navy. At the same time that the formation was discovered, the torpedo boat was also discovered by the formation and evacuated eastward at high speed. Perhaps because of the urgency of evacuation, the torpedo boat's route just crossed the route of the missile boat "Micner Ge" approaching it. Because both ships are driving at high speed, the distance between the two ships is shortened to 25 chains after 2 minutes. At 22: 30, the Micner launched a powerful shelling on the torpedo boat. A small torpedo boat really can't stand the fierce bombardment of three 40 mm guns. Several shells directly hit the engine room, and the torpedo boat lost power and had to stay put. After the "Gash" arrived quickly, it was sunk with a 76 mm naval gun. After sinking the torpedo boat, quickly resume formation and continue to search northeast. At 22: 37, Gash radar suddenly spotted a small target at 100 degrees and 20 nautical miles away, which looked like a missile boat. Two tactical teams turned to the east and rushed to the target. While the boat formation is chasing the sea surface target, the helicopter group is also nervously searching the sea surface. As the helicopters have entered the detection range of Syrian shore-based radar, the Syrian navy's shore-based radar found that the navy had entered the Latakia Sea, concluded that the four helicopters were four missile speedboats, and immediately ordered 1 Hornet class and two Mosquito class missile boats to carry out cover attacks. The maritime target discovered by the missile boat formation is actually a minesweeper of the Syrian navy. Its task is to attract the attention of Israeli missile boats and cover three Syrian missile boats to carry out missile attacks on Israeli missile boats at sea. After the Syrian missile boat group set sail from Latakia at 22: 27, because the shore-based radar did not find the missile boat formation, it mistakenly judged the helicopter group as a missile boat formation, and sailed south to pounce on the helicopter group after leaving the port. While the missile boat pounced on the Syrian minesweeper, the Syrian minesweeper also found a group of small boats, which reported to the port and shore and accelerated. At 23: 00 16, the first assault group fired three Gabriel missiles at the Syrian minesweeper. The Syrian minesweeper failed to escape and was hit on the podium and the bow. The people on the podium are either dead or injured, making it almost impossible to drive. When the Israeli missile boat attacked the Syrian minesweeper, the Israeli helicopter group and the Syrian missile boat found each other almost at the same time. The commander of the Syrian missile boat group mistakenly thought it was an Israeli missile boat and immediately formed a single-line attack on the Israeli helicopter group. At 2327 hours, Syrian missile boats fired six missiles at Israeli helicopter groups. After the helicopter group found the missile, it immediately raised its altitude and reported to the ship commanding the formation at sea. The missile roared under the helicopter and fell into the sea. After receiving the helicopter report, the missile boat formation immediately turned to the southeast and advanced at high speed to search for the Syrian missile boat formation that launched the missile. The Syrian missile boat also left a hand. In the first attack, the helicopter group only fired six missiles. When it was found fooled, it immediately turned to attack the real Israeli missile boat formation. But at this point, there are only two missiles left. At 2335 hours, two missiles were fired at an Israeli boat formation at an altitude of150m. The boat was ready to fire chaff jamming bombs immediately, and quickly accelerated to avoid, and at the same time used various guns on the boat to intercept. One missile fell into the sea near the Israeli boat formation, and the other was hit and exploded by the "Mitzta" 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun, and none of them hit. After the missile was evaded by the boat formation, it immediately regrouped into a battle formation and approached the Syrian boat formation at high speed. At 23: 051,the first Israeli assault group launched an attack, and six missiles swept the sea and fired at Syrian missile boats. At the moment of tilting, two Syrian missile boats were shot and exploded, and sank to the bottom of the sea. One of them was shot and damaged, and its speed was obviously reduced, but it still slowly sailed to the Syrian coast in an attempt to enter the shore gun coverage area. The ship group was desperate. At 0: 05 on the 7th, the first Israeli tactical group pursued within the artillery range, and a shell sent the injured Syrian missile boat into the sea. When the second tactical group covered the artillery attack of the first tactical group, it found the injured minesweeper and immediately approached and sank it with artillery fire. At 00: 45, the result of the battle was to regroup in missile boat formation at sea and evacuate to the southwest at high speed. This battle sank the Syrian navy 1 Hornet class missile boat, two mosquito class missile boats, 1K- 123 torpedo boat and 1T-43 minesweeper, and returned to Haifa Port at 7: 00 on the 7th.