Israeli Navy conducts rare test of sea-to-sea missiles to protect gas platforms

The Israeli Navy this week simulated an attack on the country’s natural gas platforms, including a rare live-fire test of sea-to-sea missiles, fired from four ships simultaneously at an old cargo freighter acting as an enemy vessel, the military says.

Sa’ar-4.5 model corvettes participated in the week-long naval exercise, dubbed “Raging Sea.”

“We simulated an enemy ship coming to harm our strategic facilities and, with coordination at sea and in the air, we destroyed it,” says Col. Guy Goldfarb, commander of the navy’s gunship fleet.

The navy says the cargo ship — the Eyal, which was due to be scrapped — was meant to simulate an enemy ship transporting fighters to a natural gas platform in order to blow it up.

Due to the complexities of a live-fire test that sinks a ship, this type of exercise has not been conducted by the Israeli Navy in approximately 20 years.

“This kind of exercise requires two and a half months of preparations. It was a highly irregular exercise in its scope and size — all of the gunship fleet was in the water,” Goldfarb says.

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— Judah Ari Gross