Sa'ar 2-class missile boat

INS Mivtach on display at the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum, Haifa
Class overview
Name:	Sa'ar 2 class
Builders:	Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie
Operators:	Israeli Navy
Preceded by:	Sa'ar 1 class
Succeeded by:	Sa'ar 3 class
In commission:	1967-1997
Completed:	6
General characteristics
Type:	Missile boat
Displacement:	220 tons (250 tons loaded)
Length:	45 m (148 ft)
Beam:	7.62 m (25.0 ft)
Draft:	1.8 m (5.9 ft)
Propulsion:	4 MTU 16V 538 diesel engines, four shafts, total of 12,800 hp (9,500 kW)
Speed:	40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph)
Range:	2,500 nmi (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement:	40
Sensors and processing systems:	Thomson-CSF Neptune THD 1040 air & surface surveillance radar Selenia Orion RTN-10X fire-control radar ELAC hull-mounted sonar EDO 780 variable depth sonar
Armament:	4 × RGM-84 Harpoon SSMs and 2 × Gabriel II SSMs or 5-8 x Gabriel II SSMs 1 × Bofors L/70 40 mm gun 2 × 0.30 in (7.62 mm) caliber M1919A4 Browning machine guns 4 × 7.62 mm FN MAG 58 general-purpose machine guns

2,500 nmi (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)

The Sa'ar 2 class ("Shalechet") is a class of missile boats built in Cherbourg, France at the Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie shipyard based on Israeli Navy modification of the German Navy's Jaguar-class fast attack craft. Three of the ships class were converted from Sa'ar 1-class patrol boats in 1974.

The Israeli naval command had reached the conclusion by the early 1960s that their old Second World War-era destroyers, frigates and corvettes were obsolete and new ships and vessels were needed.Yitzhak Shoshan, later to command the destroyer INS Eilat at the time of her sinking, surveyed the available torpedo boat designs and recommended the German Jaguar class. The Israeli Navy asked Lürssen, the shipyard which built the Jaguar class, to modify the wooden design by switching to steel construction, adding 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) to the length, and revising the internal compartmentalization. Due to Arab League pressure on the German government, this plan was not continued and a new builder was sought. The Israeli Navy discovered that the Cherbourg-based Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie shipyard owned by Félix Amiot had experience building patrol boats in cooperation with Lürssen and would build the boats, based upon the German designs and plans. The engines were imported from Germany. The project received the codename "Falling Leaves" (Hebrew: שלכת‎‎).

An initial group of six boats was ordered in 1965, with an armament of Bofors 40 mm guns and torpedo tubes and provision for fitting sonar. This group was designated the Sa'ar 1 class. When refitted with Gabriel anti-ship missiles, they became the Sa'ar 2 class. A second group of six boats, the Sa'ar 3 class, was ordered in 1968, with a OTO Melara 76 mm gun instead of the Bofors guns of the Sa'ar 1 class and with anti-submarine provisions omitted.