TEL AVIV \u2014 The Israeli Navy is taking to heart that familiar saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following Hezbollah’s surprise C-802 shore-to-ship missile attack in the 2006 Lebanon War and Israel’s failure to intercept Hamas frogmen before they reached the country’s southern shore during the 2014 Gaza war, the service is taking no chances. Next time, Israeli officers say, the Navy will be ready for the next big challenge: small, stealthy narco-submarines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In the maritime world, subsurface threats are multiplying. Many are garage technology submarines that drug lords have built in their backyards. Others are much more sophisticated,”\u00a0said Rear Adm. Yossi Ashkenazi, head of the Israeli Navy’s Materiel Command.\u00a0“If criminals can deliver 10 tons of drugs over long distances undetected, terrorists can do the same with weaponry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
US Adm. James Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander at NATO, agreed.\u00a0In a study last year by the US Army\u2019s Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he warned that nations must develop cooperative strategies for countering vessels\u00a0that “to <\/span>transport more than just narcotics, [but] the movement of cash, weapons, violent extremists or, at the darkest of the spectrum, weapons of mass destruction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study divided narco-subs into three distinct categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a recent interview, Ashkenazi said there is no firm indication yet that Hezbollah or Hamas are operating such narco-subs. Nevertheless, given close links between the narcotics trade and terror, Ashkenazi said the Navy is preparing a range of manned and unmanned countermeasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We’re very carefully watching this. The possibility of these unmanned subs getting leaked to other organizations puts us in a place where we have elevated our awareness of how to deal with subsurface threats,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The officer declined to provide details for obvious security reasons, but said the service is improving technologies, tactics and procedures to address the emerging threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the Navy is working with state-owned Rafael on a second-generation prototype of its Protector unmanned surface vessel (USV) and is also considering exploring the multimission sonar and torpedo capabilities featured in Elbit’s unmanned Seagull prototype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n “Regarding USVs, we are deep inside the technology. We have a new generation prototype of Rafael’s that we’re working with \u2026 and the Elbit system is unique in that it is totally modular. We can install or remove unmanned capabilities for ultimate flexibility in multiple missions,” Ashkenazi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ofer Ben-Dov, vice president for Naval Systems in Elbit’s ISTAR Division, said the Seagull’s multimission unmanned system is designed to detect submarines “including small size and midget submarines, at long ranges.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n For anti-submarine warfare missions, he said the system uses a high-performance dipping sonar for detection, as well as anti-submarine torpedoes, “which can be replaced by less lethal means for use against narco-subs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the Protector’s anti-submarine capabilities, Rafael said the system’s modular design allows operators to select subsystems that best meet specific operational requirements, including missions in “the underwater battle space.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n