IDF prepares for future confrontation with Hezbollah and Iran: This is how missile ships will protect gas rigs | Israel Today

The vigilance at the Battle News Center, the most important room on the Ahav Lahav missile ship, was high. It was the moment of truth. The cruise missile appeared on the screen, a red dot on the black screen and approached quickly. About two miles from the Stil, she survived the attack.

The rig defense exercise // Photo: IDF Spokesman

In an unusual move, the IDF approved journalists to join a gas rig defense exercise and revealed how the Navy intends to defend the strategic objectives of the State of Israel.

Step by step, including entering the Holy of Holies of the ships, and accompanied by the commander of Squadron 3, Israel's missile fleet, Colonel Erez Ben Zion, they presented us with how the IDF protects the sites that are strictly forbidden to be hit during a conflict.

Last Monday, we landed on the missile ship Ahi Lahav, a Saar type 5 ship. Next to us stood Ahi Hanit, the same ship that was hit hard by a missile in the Second Lebanon War, an incident in which four fighters were killed.

A few hundred meters behind it stood proudly four assault ships 6, the new missile ships of the State of Israel, which are considered the best on any scale compared to the existing vessels.

Marine Iron Dome, Photo: IDF Spokesman

Shortly after boarding the ship, it disengaged from the pier and went out to sea, bypassing the huge traffic jam of the merchant ships waiting to be unloaded at two Haifa ports.

The target - a whale rig, off the coast of Hadera, with the goal of participating in a large exercise in cooperation with the Air Force as part of the war month "Fire Chariots".

With reports of preparations for a future confrontation with Iran, the outline of the exercise being an attack by Hezbollah, and the three journalists on board representing three prominent media outlets in different languages ​​around the world - in Hebrew, Arabic and German, the message is clear: the IDF is ready for any scenario And from the air.

"Our starting point is that in the future conflict the enemy will fire everything it has - ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles," says Col. Ben-Zion. During the exercise, Israeli F-16s simulate Hezbollah's three main threats using different speeds, and the STIL fighters are required to act accordingly.

One of the ship's officers, Photo: IDF Spokesman

In the MIC (Battle News Center) room we are required to entrust each electronic device, as it is the Holy of Holies of the ship, a place where processes are carried out that in time of war can decide the fate of the battle: " More, "says Col. Ben Zion.

The room is surrounded by dozens of screens - an area known as the "Electronic War Zone" is used for defense and attack and missile fire, the defense post monitors planes and missiles and the photo building post examines additional information used to build a snapshot of the moment of truth. To the commander of the Steels Squadron, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, or to the commander of the fleet himself who will conduct a great battle from within the ship.

The people who control the shooting on the ship, Photo: IDF Spokesman

Battle News Center, Photo: IDF Spokesman

The ship features two separate missile systems for different threats.

The purpose of the lightning missiles is to neutralize cruise missiles while the purpose of the Iron Dome interceptors is to eliminate ballistic threats and unmanned aircraft.

The reason for the repeated repetition of these three threats is not accidental: these are the threats by which terrorist organizations and countries have attacked various rigs and strategic assets in the world.

It can be said with almost certainty that if Hezbollah enters the battle with Israel - it will try to hit such a goal of quality with precise missiles that it tries to equip itself with and against which the IDF is waging a bitter war in the Bambam (the war between the wars).

In fact, the Lahav Brotherhood ship we are on has already carried out its first operational baptism of fire with regard to ballistic missile threats. Was needed.

The Lahav IDF was ready to fire, "says Col. Ben-Zion. The ship's interception systems are almost completely automatic." The response time between detection and interception is a matter of seconds.

The systems are making all the preparations up to the interception stage and are requesting a firing permit. "

Colonel Erez Ben Zion, Photo: IDF Spokesman

The fighters practiced the operational scenario without hesitation, and everyone knows their role.

In the MIC room, they followed the planes that simulated a cruise missile, handwriting and ballistic missiles, simulating the launch of interceptors without real firing in order not to endanger the friendly forces and immediately move on to preparations for the next scenario.

The fighters were supervised by the ship's commander, Lt. Gen. Or Naftali himself.

Meanwhile, on the command bridge they conducted the battle on the visual level and maneuvered the ship in order to achieve optimal results.

Col. Ben-Zion warns that the threat of cruise missiles, which in the past was the domain of armies only, is rapidly trickling into terrorist organizations. “This technology has become very available.

We see that there is a lot of leakage to terrorist organizations, and this can be seen, among other things, in the launches of the Houthis in Yemen on vessels in the Mediterranean.

"Today, this weapon is more common and is used more intensively."

The commander of the missile flotilla is well aware that there is a chance that the missile ships themselves will be a target, as they were in the Second Lebanon War, and says that this time the IDF will not be caught unprepared.

"We are also prepared against combined threats, including massive threats. We have sea attack missiles, which are capable of sinking vessels at very great distances, and we are able to detect submarines using sonar. We know for sure that our enemy will want to sink a ship in the next confrontation and use all means available. "To carry out this planning, including measures we do not yet know about. My goal is to carry out our missions - and bring everyone home safely, and that is what we are preparing for."

Conducting the battle, Photo: IDF Spokesman

The IDF is not satisfied with training, and learns, among other things, from the war in Ukraine, in which, among other things, the flagship of the Black Sea - "Moscow" was damaged by the Ukrainian army. Col. Ben-Zion says, " "

Last February, an extraordinary record was published of a shooting attempt on assault ships 6. This is the newest acquisition of the Sea Arm, which is expected to upgrade it dramatically.

The four new ships arrived at the port of Haifa, the last of which last August, where they began the integration of the many systems.

"The ships are in the process of being executed. It is a process that takes other fleets between three and five years, and we are doing it in record time. We plan to put the first ship into operational activity very soon and will be until next summer with 4 operational ships."

One of the biggest advantages of the 6 assault ships is in the protection of rigs, partly because unlike the Lahav Brotherhood, where a naval iron dome system is installed as needed, at the expense of the bat helicopter landing pad, the new ships incorporate the system structurally, and are capable of intercepting Both ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. "The amount of interceptors, the systems, the communication between them, the capabilities of the radar, everything is stronger in storm 6. The number of rigs is only growing, so we need these ships. Right now the number of ships is enough, but if we need someone else Will have to make a decision on the matter.It should be said that wherever there is a rig we deploy stilts to protect it, and very soon the Lahav Brothers will not be the only ship that has these capabilities.

Along with the defense capability, Storm 6 has very advanced capabilities that can assist in the interwar wars, including the fact that the new ships are capable of embarking on very long voyages without the need for refueling or supplies.

"Squadron 3 is the long arm of the IDF and can be sent on very distant voyages from the home port.

We are operated everywhere.

We know how to sail very far and carry out the missions at very great distances, "reveals Col. Ben Zion Tefah and hides Tefahim.

Despite the relative tensions with Russia, it should be noted that there are no restrictions on the activity of the naval arm even in areas outside the territory of the State of Israel.

"There is no effect from the Russian presence in space on the voyage. We are sailing without interruption or change in the Mediterranean."

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