Israeli Navy


The Israeli Navy is the naval warfare service arm of the Israel Defense Forces, operating primarily in the Mediterranean Sea theater as well as the Gulf of Eilat and the Red Sea theater. The current commander of the Israeli Navy is Rear Admiral David Saar Salama. The Israeli Navy is believed to be responsible for maintaining Israel's offshore nuclear second strike capability.

Mission

The Israeli Navy is responsible for the construction of the naval force of the IDF and its operational capabilities. Its aim is to secure its superiority at sea, freedom of action, and freedom of navigation in the Israeli maritime space. It also conducts attacks against enemies and more.
Among the Navy's roles are:
  1. Safeguarding the security of the country and its citizens, including defending 190 km of Israel's coastline against terrorism and infiltrations.
  2. Ensuring open sea routes for merchant shipping.
  3. Defending Israel's territorial and economic waters, as well as its strategic assets.
  4. Naval operations and maritime interdiction.
  5. Obtaining vital intelligence and engaging in cyber activities.
  6. Integration with land warfare.
In the Multi-Year Plan for the years 2008-2012, the annual budget for the Navy stood at approximately one billion shekels, excluding the purchase of new naval vessels.

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.
File:HN-INS-Gal-2.jpg|thumb|INS Gal at the Naval Museum, Haifa
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. The Jewish merchant marine was also raised, operating SS Tel-Aviv and cargo ships such as Atid.
In 1942, eleven hundred Haganah volunteers joined the Royal Navy, mostly in technical roles. A few reached sea service and combat service. Two of them served with the Fleet Air Arm, one of whom was Edmond Wilhelm Brillant and the other Zvi Avidror. With the end of the Second World 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 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 no active sea service and experience on Royal Navy ships.
  • 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 and a Jew, was the exception rather than the rule.
  • Merchant Marine captains and chief engineers, 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 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

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 ships.

Bases

Patrol squadrons

, 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 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.