Israel has designed and is rushing production on a new class of heavily-armed, highly-maneuverable and very fast boats as the answer to the Egyptian missile-carrying gunboats of the type that sank the Israeli destroyer, the Elath, last September.
The new vessels, though small, are understood to have the ability to detect and destroy submarines, planes and large warships, in addition to missile boats. Informed sources said that the boats should enable Israel to maintain qualitative superiority over the Soviet-armed Egyptian navy.
The review of Israeli Navy’s capacity began before a Komar-type vessel sank the Elath on September 21 with Styx missiles, it was indicated. Sources said the closest existing design to the new vessels was the PGM aluminum-hulled patrol boats developed by the United States several years ago to cope with the Komar class vessels supplied by the Soviet Union to Cuba.
No information was given as to the number of ships planned in the new class, or how soon they would be commissioned.
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