The Israel Defense Forces Press Service reported today that our naval forces succeeded in preventing the attack of “unmanned submarines”. In other words, our Navy countered Hamas attempts to attack Israel from the sea using unmanned submarines capable of causing serious damage to ships, ports, gas platforms and our numerous strategic facilities.
The Navy also announced the complete operationalization of all four Saar-6 class corvettes ordered in May 2015 for the Israeli Navy by the Netanyahu government from German manufacturers. Moreover, one of these corvettes has passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea.
What does it mean to “the complete operationalization process”?
It refers to the transformation of newly acquired, or even specially designed for us, new military platforms from their original state into such platforms that will be able to fulfill their operational tasks in real combat conditions.
In fact, when Israel purchases a military platform, including those specially designed for us — an airplane, a helicopter, a ship, a submarine — it usually arrives with only a basic set of the weapons systems that are identical to the original configuration. This is due to the fact that many special weapon systems are created in Israel and installed only after the new platform has already been received by the army.
The Sa’ar-6 class corvettes that arrived in Israel underwent a long process, which took two years, during which they were equipped with unique Israeli combat systems, missiles of various types, as well as defense systems, including: an air defense system for the Navy (“Sea Iron Dome”), medium-range SAM system “Barak 8”, as well as domestic systems of communication, intelligence, electronic warfare, etc.
All of these systems proceed through comprehensive testing and integration during the completion of the operationalization process (connecting all of these systems together and verifying their overall compatibility with each other). In addition, training centers are set up to train the soldiers who will use them, maintenance systems that include teams of specialists responsible for repairs of all levels of complexity, and stocks of suitable spare parts.
Thus, in fact, when a new airplane, helicopter, or ship arrives in Israel — it is still a long way from being put into service. It must first have many systems installed on it, tested for joint operation and efficiency, and trained personnel both for use and for maintenance or repair. Only then is the system declared “operational” — and put into service.
Now all four Sa’ar-6 class corvettes, the largest ships our Navy has ever possessed, are capable of performing all of their assigned missions: both in protecting gas platforms (which is their primary mission) and countering a variety of threats.
One of the ships, as already mentioned, has been sent to the Red Sea. It can be assumed that now that it has been operationalized and equipped with all the appropriate defense and interception systems, it will be able to take part in the defense of the southern region against the missiles and UAVs of the Yemeni Houthis