(Washington Times) Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett II - During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, a Chinese C-802 anti-ship missile struck Israel's INS Hanit off the Lebanon coast, killing four Israeli sailors. The Hanit is a corvette (called a Saar 5 class ship by the Israeli navy) with a crew of 80. The missile blew up near the fan tail of the ship, causing substantial damage, but the ship didn't sink. If the missile had struck amidships or had impacted at the water line, many more crewmembers would have been killed or injured, and it's unlikely the ship would have survived. A second C-802 fired at the same time flew over the ship, zeroed in on a small freighter 40 miles away, and sank it. Israeli officials believe Hizbullah may have had its hand on the lanyard, but Iranian specialists manned the firing batteries, and Lebanon's military radars provided the guidance for the missile.
2011-11-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive