Battle of Latakia

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Battle of Latakia

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

8 ships¹

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

Yom Kippur War
Hizayon - Abiray-Lev - Latakia Related U.S. Operations Nickel Grass

The Battle of Latakia 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.

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.

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 missile range.

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.