INS Hanit

INS Hanit at Haifa port, May 2010
History
Israel
Name:	Hanit
Namesake:	Spear
Builder:	Northrop Grumman by Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	5 April 1993
Launched:	5 March 1994
Commissioned:	7 February 1995
Status:	Active
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Sa'ar 5-class corvette
Displacement:	1,275 tonnes (full load) 1,065 tonnes (standard)
Length:	85.64 m (280.97 ft)
Beam:	11.88 m (38.98 ft)
Draft:	3.45 m (11.32 ft)
Propulsion:	Combined Diesel or Gas 2 MTU V12 1163 TB82 diesel engines General Electric LM2500 gas turbine
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h) (diesel engines) 33 knots (61 km/h) (gas turbine)
Range:	3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km)
Complement:	64 officers and crewmen 10 aircrew
Sensors and processing systems:	Elta EL/M-2218S air search radar Elta EL/M-2221 fire-control radar EDO Type 796 hull-mounted sonar Rafael towed sonar array
Electronic warfare & decoys:	Argon ST AN/SLQ-25 Nixie decoy Elbit chaff rocket launchers Rafael RF corner reflector Elisra NS-9003A/9005 RWR
Armament:	8 RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles 64 Barak 1 surface-to-air missiles 2 Mark 32 SVTTs (6 tubes)
Aircraft carried:	Eurocopter Panther
Aviation facilities:	Helipad and helicopter hangar

INS Hanit (Hebrew: חנית‎‎, Spear) is a Sa'ar 5-class corvette of the Israeli Navy, built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in 1994. On 14 July 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War, it suffered damage after being struck by a Hezbollah C-802 anti-ship missile.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, the vessel was patrolling in Lebanese waters ten nautical miles off the coast of Beirut. It was damaged on 14 July 2006 on the waterline, under the aft superstructure by a missile (likely a Chinese-designed C-802) fired by Hezbollah that reportedly set the flight deck on fire and crippled the propulsion systems inside the hull. However, INS Hanit stayed afloat, extricated itself and made the rest of the journey back to Ashdod port for repairs on its own power. Four crew members were killed during the attack: Staff Sergeant Tal Amgar, Corporal Shai Atas, Sergeant Yaniv Hershkovitz, and First Sergeant Dov Steinshuss.

According to the Israeli Navy, the ship's sophisticated automatic missile defense system was not deployed, even though the early warning system is usually deployed during peace-time wargames. In the aftermath of the event, reports suggested that no known intelligence existed which would have pointed to the fact that such a sophisticated missile was deployed in Lebanon by Hezbollah. In fact, the investigative work of Ha'aretz journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff showed that an intelligence officer identified only as Colonel K. had given a lecture on 21 April 2003, predicting that Hezbollah possessed shore-to-sea missiles. Furthermore, on the morning of 14 July 2006 a branch head of naval intelligence described as Lieutenant-Colonel Y. briefed the head of naval intelligence, Colonel Ram Rothberg, telling him that "ships enforcing Israel's naval blockade on Hezbollah should take into account the possibility of a C-802 missile being fired on them." No warning was issued based on this assessment, however; if it had, Israeli ships would have moved further away from the shore and activated their anti-missile systems.