Battle of Latakia
Part of the Yom Kippur War
Diagram outlining the Battle of Latakia
Date October 7, 1973 Location near Latakia, Syria Result Israeli victory
Combatants
Israel	Syria
Commanders
Michael Barkai	unknown
Strength
5 ships¹: 3 SAAR 4 class 2 SAAR 3 class	1 torpedo boat 1 minesweeper 2 Komar-class missile boats 1 Osa-class missile boat
Casualties
unknown	All five ships
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 October 7, 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 warfare deception. Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ... Combatants Israel Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq Aided By Saudi Arabia Pakistan Cuba Uganda Libya, Commanders Moshe Dayan, David Elazar, Ariel Sharon, Shmuel Gonen, Benjamin Peled, Israel Tal, Rehavam Zeevi, Aharon Yariv, Yitzhak Hofi, Rafael Eitan, Abraham Adan, Yanush Ben Gal Saad El Shazly, Ahmad Ismail Ali, Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Aly... October 7 is the 280th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (281st in leap years). ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) is a guided projectile launched from a hand-held, vehicle mounted, trailer mounted or fixed installation or from a ship. ... Missile Boat, see Missile Boat (disambiguation) Missile boat FNS Hamina of the Finnish Navy. ... Electronic warfare (EW) is the use of the electromagnetic spectrum to deny its effective use by an adversary while optimizing its use by friendly forces. ...

At the outset of hostilities, the Israel Navy set out to destroy the naval capabilities of the Syrians, who were equipped with modern Soviet-made equipment. Operational areas of the Israel Navy: Mediterranean Sea (north), Gulf of Aqaba (east), Red Sea (south), Gulf of Suez (west), viewed from Space Shuttle STS-40. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

The battle was fought off the Syrian port city of Latakia. The Israelis employed the tactic of letting the enemy fire missiles at maximum range, while using chaff and radar jamming techniques (Electronic countermeasures) to defend against them. Once the Syrians ran out of missiles, the Israelis closed in and fought at optimum range using their Gabriel missiles. Roundabout in Latakia Latakia (Arabic: اللاذقية Al-Ladhiqiyah, Greek:Λαοδικεία) is the principal port city of Syria. ... Modern US Navy RR-129 and RR-124 chaff countermeasures and containers Chaff, originally called Window by the British, and Düppel by the WWII era German Luftwaffe, is a radar countermeasure in which aircraft or other targets spread a cloud of small, thin pieces of aluminium, metallised glass fibre... Radar jamming is the intentional emission of radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of a radar by saturating its receiver with false information. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... The Gabriel missile was devoloped it in 1962 and is used as a sea to sea missle. ...

Several Syrian gunships were sunk, and the Syrian navy returned to port and did not fight again for the rest of the war.

Note: while this was the first naval battle in history between missile boats, it was not the first battle in which a missile boat sank another (non-missile equipped) ship using missiles. That event occurred when an Egyptian Soviet-built Komar class craft sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat on October 20, 1967, shortly after the Six Day War, using four SS-N-2 Styx missiles. October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... The 1967 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the Six-Day War or June War, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. ... The NATO reporting name Styx or SS-N-2 was used for a type of missile developed by the Soviet Union in the 1950s. ...

External links

• Jewish Virtual Library battle of Latakia page