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This certainly makes more sense then the original "drone" story, but the Israeli ship shown was a fairly small gunboat. If the Silkworm didn't sink it outright then perhaps the destructiveness of the Silkworm has been oversold.

The Silkworm was powerful enough to damage the ship's operating controls and the impact killed four sailors. So its not a weapon to be taken lightly. What it means is changes in the way the Israeli Navy operates off the Lebanese coast.

(Go Israel, Go! Slap Down Em Hezbullies!)

"Fairly small gunboats" don't have helicopter decks. They also don't survive a Silkworm strike.

Eilat (Saar V) class large missile corvettes

Displacement: 1,275 tons full load
Dimensions: 86.4 x 11.9 x 3.2 meters (283.5 x 39 x 10.5 feet)
Propulsion: 2 shafts; 2 cruise diesels, 6,600 bhp, 20 knots; 1 LM2500
boost gas turbine, 23,000 shp, 33 knots
Crew: 74
Aviation: aft helicopter deck and hangar; 1 Dauphin helicopter
Radar: TPS-44 3-D air search
Sonar: Type 796 hull, towed array
Fire Control: 2 M-2221
EW: NS 9003 intercept/jammer, 4 SRBOC, SLQ-25 Nixie
Armament: 8 Harpoon SSM, 64 VL Barak SAM, 1 20 mm
Phalanx CIWS, 2 20 mm AA, 2 triple 12.75 inch torpedo tubes
Heavily armed multirole corvettes, built in USA.
Combat systems fitted in Israel after delivery. Some
planned weapons were not installed due to topweight problems.
Can serve as 'leaders' for smaller FACs.

Number Name Year FLT Homeport Notes
501 Eilat 1994 MED Haifa
502 Lahav 1994 MED Haifa
503 Hanit 1995 MED Haifa

If this was a Silkworm strike, I've got to think the CIWS wasn't activated, and that the Israelis didn't foresee this threat.

Good morning.

If a Silkworm hit a loaded tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, the destruction would be catastrophic. If two or three hit a ship like the Iwo Jima while it was retrieving American citizens from Lebanon, we would almost certainly be at war with the fools that launched them.

Michael Frazier