Israeli Navy

History

The origins of the Israeli Navy lay in the founding of the Betar Naval Academy, a Jewish naval training school established in Civitavecchia, Italy, in 1934 by the Revisionist Zionist movement under the direction of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, The Academy trained cadets from all over Europe, Palestine and South Africa and produced some of the future commanders of the Israeli Navy. In September 1937, the training ship Sarah I visited Haifa and Tel Aviv as part of a Mediterranean tour.

In 1938, encouraged by the Jewish Agency, Shlomo Bardin founded the Marine High School in Bosmat, the Technion's Junior Technical College. 1943 witnessed the founding of the Palyam, the naval branch of the Palmach, whose training was undertaken at the maritime school.

During World War II, about 1,100 Jewish volunteers from Palestine joined the Royal Navy, mostly in technical roles. Some became sailors and saw combat service. In accordance with an agreement between the Jewish Agency and Royal Navy, 12 became officers. Two of them volunteered to be pilots with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) but were ultimately not accepted to the pilot course. One of the volunteers was Edmond Wilhelm Brillant and the other was Zvi Avidror. Additional Jewish volunteers from Palestine served in the British Merchant Navy during the war. With the end of the war and the start of the Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine, Palyam members took part in clandestine immigration activities, bringing Europe's Jews to Palestine, as well as commando actions against Royal Navy deportation ships. Royal Navy volunteers, meanwhile, rejoined the Haganah.

During the last months of British Mandate in Palestine, the former Royal Navy volunteers started work on the captured clandestine immigration ships (known as the Fleet of Shadows) in Haifa harbor, salvaged a few and pressed them into service. These were to become the Navy's first ships and saw service in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

At the outset of the 1948 war and with the founding of the IDF, the Israeli Navy consisted of four former Aliyah Bet ships impounded in Haifa harbor. These ships were refurbished by a newly formed naval repair facility with the assistance of two private shipbuilding and repair companies. In October 1948, a submarine chaser was purchased from the United States. With the founding of the IDF in early 1948, the Israeli Navy was therefore formed from a core of the following personnel:

• Royal Navy volunteers with the technical skills and discipline acquired from the Royal Navy, though with limited active sea service and experience on naval vessels.
• Palyam members who had led the clandestine and immigration effort, but had no sea background in navigation or leading a ship into a battle. The captains of clandestine and immigration ships were Italian, while Palyam personnel were commanding the ship under instructions from the Haganah. Ike Aharonowitch, captain of Exodus and a Jew, was the exception rather than the rule.
• Merchant Navy veterans, possessing navigation skills but lacking combat skills.
• Jewish volunteers from the United States Navy and Royal Navy, such as Commander Paul Shulman of the U.S. Navy, and Commanders Solomon and Allen Burk of the Royal Navy. These, however, were often discriminated against and their experience wasted by a navy command that was based on the Palmach and its various branches. This resulted in odd situations where unskilled officers from the Palyam were in command of far more experienced naval officers.

During the war, the warships served on coastal patrol duties and bombarded Arab targets on land, including Egyptian coastal installations in and around the Gaza area all the way to Port Said. The Israeli Navy also engaged the Egyptian Navy at sea during Operation Yoav, and the Egyptian Navy's flagship, Emir Farouk, was sunk in an operation by Israeli naval commandos.

Palyam personnel often resisted efforts to instill order, discipline and rank in the newly formed service. Mess rooms were initially shared by both officers and enlisted men. Ships possessed a captain with nautical skills, but also a commanding officer regarded as political. This would cause a great deal of debate between veterans of the Palyam, Royal Navy volunteers from the Haganah and U.S. Navy Machal volunteers about what form the Navy should take. Commander Allen Burk is reputed to have said, out of despair, "You cannot make naval officers from cowboys".

Royal Navy Captain Ashe Lincoln, who was Jewish, advised Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to purchase corvettes, frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, and patrol boats to build up the Israeli Navy power. To that end, he urged Ben-Gurion to consult with professional navy advisers. This resulted in instructions to contact U.S. Navy advisors, mainly Commander Paul Shulman from the U.S. Navy.

The Israeli Navy suffered from a lack of professional command during its early days. Gershon Zak, head of the IDF "Sea Service", was a teacher and bureaucrat without any relevant experience. Having never been recruited into the IDF, Zak was a civilian and had no official rank. The early days of the Israeli Navy were therefore characterized by political infighting, as many groups and individuals jockeyed for power. Palyam politics blocked the nomination of Paul Shulman (a Jewish U.S. Navy officer with a rank of Commander who volunteered for the Israeli Navy) as Navy-Commander in Chief and he resigned in 1949. The first Navy-Commander in Chief awarded the rank of Aluf was Shlomo Shamir.

The conclusion of the 1948 war afforded the navy the time to build up its strength. Beginning in the early 1950s the navy purchased frigates, torpedo boats, destroyers, and eventually submarines. The material build-up was accompanied by the training of Israeli Navy officers in Royal Navy academies in the UK and Malta, as well as in France.

Three distinct periods characterize the history of the Israeli Navy:

• Foundation and early days
• The destroyers' age
• The missile boats era, beginning in 1965 and bearing fruit during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Until 1967 the Naval Headquarters were located at Stella Maris, on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Haifa. After the Six-Day War it was relocated to the Kirya in Tel Aviv, next to IDF Headquarters.

Yom Kippur War

In the most significant engagement in its history, during the Yom Kippur War five Israeli Navy missile boats sank five Syrian ships without losses during the Battle of Latakia. As a result, the Syrian Navy remained in port for the remainder of the conflict. It was the first naval battle in history between surface-to-surface missile-equipped missile boats.

Another significant engagement was the Battle of Baltim, during which six Israeli Navy missile boats engaged four Egyptian Navy missile boats sinking three, again, without losses.

USS Liberty incident

The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship (a spy ship), USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian NSA employee), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. Both the Israeli and United States governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the ship's identity.

The combined air and sea attack lasted 23 minutes and was carried out by air strafing and napalm bombing by four Mirage III and Super Mystères fighters, and gunfire and torpedo launches from the motor boats, one of which impacted the ship. Israeli forces terminated their attack after the torpedo impact, believing the ship to be sinking. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nautical miles (47.2 km; 29.3 mi) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish.

Israel apologized for the attack, saying that USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. Others, including survivors of the attack, dispute this account, and state that the attack was deliberate. Thomas Hinman Moorer, the 7th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused President Lyndon B. Johnson of having covered up that the attack was a deliberate act. In 2004, Ward Boston, who served as chief counsel to the Naval Board of Inquiry that investigated the attack, signed an affidavit stating that President Johnson and secretary of defense Robert McNamara had ordered that the assault be ruled an accident and to reach the conclusion "that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity' despite 'overwhelming evidence to the contrary.'"

2006 Lebanon War

The surprise attack on the Israeli navy's flagship INS Hanit by an onshore Hezbollah battery was a turning point for naval doctrine and operations. Four seamen died when the YJ-83 missile hit the corvette because the vessel's missile defense systems had not been turned on at that time.

Syrian Civil War

In late 2024, after the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War, the Israeli Navy attacked Syrian Arab Navy ships berthed at the Port of Latakia, sinking six OSA II-class missile boats.

Bases

• Haifa Naval Base – Shayetet 3 (Missile Boats Flotilla), Shayetet 7 (Submarine Flotilla), Patrol Boats Squadron 914.

The emblem of the Haifa naval base is two arrows – one signifying the Missile Boats Flotilla and the other the Submarine Flotilla.

• Atlit naval base – home to Shayetet 13, the navy's elite commando unit.
• Ashdod Naval Base – mainly a base for Patrol Boats Squadron 916.

The emblem of the Ashdod naval base is two opposing arrows.

• Eilat Naval Base – Patrol Boats Squadron 915.

Eilat naval base was founded in 1951 and has been responsible for the Israeli Navy's Red Sea theater since 1981, when the Red Sea Naval Command Center was withdrawn from Sharm el-Sheikh in accordance with the Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty.

The emblem of the Eilat naval base represents the red roofs of Eilat.

• BHD 600 – located in Haifa, contains the submarine operations school, the missile boat operations school and the naval command school. The naval training base also functions as the Israeli Naval Academy.

The emblem of the Haifa training base is an owl, symbolizing wisdom and hard learning.

• MFTAH Unit – IT, processing and computing.

Mftah is a small unit responsible for all Israeli Navy signal and IT systems, both logistic and operational. The soldiers that serve there are mainly programmers and university graduates in engineering, computer science and other technological professions.

• Mount Carmel Naval Base - logistical base
• Naval Shipyards
• Navy Headquarters – HaKirya, Tel Aviv.

Forces

Patrol squadrons

Squadron 914, Squadron 915, and Squadron 916, based in Haifa, Eilat, and Ashdod respectively, consist of patrol boats. They are responsible for protecting Israel's shores and territorial waters.

Unit's objectives

• Constant patrols in the seas of Israel.
• Identification of watercraft entering Israeli waters.
• Preventing smuggling through the sea
• Protecting national assets, such as drilling rigs.
• Various operations carried out alone, or with other units in and outside of the navy.
• Various other objectives that differ between the squadrons.

3rd Flotilla

The missile boat flotilla (Shayetet 3) is based at Haifa naval base. It consists of the 31st and 32nd missile boat squadrons and the 33rd and 36th corvette squadrons.

Unit's objectives

• Protecting Israeli commerce at sea from foreign fleets.
• Preventing a possible naval blockade of Israeli ports during wartime.
• Blockading enemy ports at wartime.
• Fire support for ground units.

7th Flotilla

The submarine flotilla (Shayetet 7), a volunteer unit founded in 1959.

Unit's objectives

• Attacking enemy vessels.
• Covert intelligence gathering.
• Deployment and recovery of Shayetet 13 naval commandos.
• Acting as a support unit for other units.
• Believed to be part of the country's nuclear weapons capability.

For security reasons, applicants with dual citizenship must now officially renounce all other citizenships to be accepted into the submarine service training program.

11th Flotilla

In May 2022 it was announced that the Navy decided to re-establish Shayetet 11, following this the IDF purchased two LSV vessels which are to be used by the Israeli Navy to conduct amphibious landings as well as to transport supplies.

13th Flotilla

Shayetet 13, or Flotilla 13, is an elite naval commando unit which specializes in sea-to-land incursions, counter-terrorism, sabotage operations, maritime intelligence gathering, maritime hostage rescue, and boarding. It is among the most highly trained and secretive units in the Israeli military.

YILTAM 707

YILTAM is the Salvage and underwater works unit of the Israel navy. Formed as the damage control branch of the Navy Shipyards, the unit later incorporated experienced Flotilla-13 divers.

Snapir

Force protection and harbour security unit. Also, in charge of diving checkups of civilian ships entering Israeli harbours.

Intelligence

The Naval Intelligence Division is responsible for naval intelligence gathering.

Current fleet

"INS" stands for "Israeli Navy Ship".

Missile corvettes

Missile boats

Submarines

Patrol boats

Support ships

Commando boats

• Dolphin type underwater craft
• Hazir (the Italian Maiale) (pig) underwater craft
• Snunit (Swallow) boats
• Zaharon (Lionfish) boats
• Mulit (Mullus) boats
• Morena rigid-hulled inflatable boats

Aircraft

Aircraft operated by the Israeli Navy, even when including on-board Navy mission specialists, are flown and maintained by Israeli Air Force personnel and are part of the air force command structure.

• 193 Squadron – Eurocopter AS565 Panther – 7

Unmanned aerial vehicles

• Aeronautics Defense Orbiter
• The navy has an unmanned helicopter (manufactured by Aeronautics Defense Systems) on Sa'ar 5-class corvettes.

Equipment

• Barak 1 – Point-defence SAM
• Barak 8 – Long range SAM and anti-missile defence system
• Barak MX – Modular air defence system known as Barak Magen in Israeli Navy service
• Gabriel – sea-to-sea missile
• Harpoon – anti-ship missile
• Popeye (AGM-142 Have Nap) – air/submarine-launched cruise missile. Dolphin-class submarines believed to carry Popeye Turbo with a range >1500 km and the option for nuclear warheads.
• Typhoon Weapon Station – remote-operated 25mm gun system
• NAVLAR Artillery Rocket System
• EL/M-2221 STGR – Search, Track & Guidance/Gunnery Radar
• EL/M-2228S AMDR – Automatic Missile Detection Radar
• EL/M-2228X SGRS – Surveillance & Gunnery Radar System
• EL/M-2238 STAR – Surveillance & Threat Alert Radar
• EL/M-2226 ACSR – Advanced Coastal Surveillance Radar

Future

Currently under construction is a sixth Dolphin 2 submarine (INS Drakon). Israel has signed an MoU with Germany for the construction of three Dakar-class submarines with expected delivery in the late 2020s, which will replace its three Dolphin 1 submarines delivered in the late 1990s.

In August 2021, Israel Shipyards announced that the Israeli Navy has signed an agreement with it for the design and supply of a new class of missile boats based on Israel Shipyards' Sa'ar 72-class design that would replace its Sa'ar 4.5 ships starting in the mid-2020s. Israel Shipyards would construct a large dry dock which would enable it to outfit these new corvettes with various Israeli-made systems, as well as to service and maintain the corvettes in addition to Dolphin submarines.

In an October 2021 interview, the head of the Israeli Navys` Naval Vessels Department said that these new Reshef-class corvettes would be equipped with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems's C-Dome air-defence system. He said that their design was expected to be complete in about two years, and the first ship would likely take another two to four years to construct. Eight are to be built, with each replacing a Sa'ar 4.5 upon being commissioned.

Ranks

The Israeli Navy is small compared to other Navies and the officers chain of command is as follows with respect to Royal – Navy / United States:

Officers

Enlisted

Sleeve rank of Israeli Navy Commander-in-Chief is a rank of honor. This began as special permission from Lt. General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak (then chief of staff of the IDF) and allows the Navy Commander-in-Chief to have a sleeve rank of Vice Admiral which is equal to Lt. General, the rank of the IDF Chief of Staff. However the de facto rank of Israeli Navy Commander-in-Chief is Rear Admiral and the gesture given to the navy is ceremonial only when meeting foreign commanding officers.

The same resolution as mentioned above applies to the rank of Commodore. There is ceremonial-only sleeve rank of Rear Admiral while by the IDF hierarchy and chain of command he remains a commodore.

List of commanders