From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Battle of Latakia |
| Part of the Yom Kippur War |
Diagram outlining the Battle of Latakia |
|
|
| Belligerents |
 Israel |
Syria |
| Commanders |
 Michael Barkai |
unknown |
| Strength |
| 6 ships |
5 ships |
| Casualties and losses |
| None |
Three missile boats sunk; One torpedo boat sunk; One minesweeper sunk |
| ¹although source could also be interpreted to refer to 12 ships |
The Battle of Latakia (Arabic: معركة اللاذقية) was a small but revolutionary naval battle of the Yom Kippur War, fought on 7 October 1973, between Israel and Syria. It was the first naval battle in history to see combat between surface-to-surface missile-equipped missile boats and the use of electronic deception.
At the outset of hostilities, the Israeli Navy set out to destroy the naval capabilities of the Syrians, who were equipped with modern Soviet-manufactured equipment. The Israeli Navy employed electronic countermeasures and chaff rockets to avoid being hit by Syrian missiles. The Israelis then fired Gabriel missiles and sunk their enemies. The Syrian Navy remained bottled up in its home ports for the rest of the war.
While the Battle of Latakia was the first naval battle in history between missile boats, it was not the first battle in which a missile boat sank another ship using missiles. That had happened when one Egyptian Soviet-built Komar class fast attack craft sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat on 20 October 1967, shortly after the Six Day War, using four P-15 Termit (NATO reporting name: SS-N-2 Styx) surface-to-surface missiles.
[edit] External links
