The Navy in the Lebanese Forces

Many are those who thinks that the navy's artillery in the Lebanese Forces is nothing but fishing boats with machine guns or torpedoes boats from the World War II they got as a gift from here and there. Many are those who ignore the fact that the navy in the Lebanese Forces is the most powerful in Lebanon protecting the lebanese sea front.

heading to Lebanon are terrified by our boats, and few are the ships that dare to enter illegal shipments. And a few are those who knows that in the navy's possession radars that scan the beach 24/7 specially to face any northern <<sisterly>> potential hole coming from the sea. For all of that this amphibian investigation :

9:300 AM "Al-Massira" visiting the navy's barrack. Absolute silence except for the Dvora  torpedoes boats' roaring, and the shy waves that dared to sneak into the barrack's basin. The reception began with a briefing explaining the necessity of a daily maintenance of the boats, after the daily work out. While waiting the arrival of the commander in chief, our curiosity pushed us into and exploration tour on board on one of these boats.

The boats quality, considered the fastest of their size, are not what some might think of the World war II leftovers, and they aren't confiscated boats or some armed fishing or rubber boats, cause the navy is something else, for that matter the visit was necessary. The Lebanese Forces purchased the navy's boats and the staff became trained in order to handle larger boats, and the training includes the marine's navigation in regional and international waters and the maritime law.

Their language and expressions are scientific, and mostly foreign. The ship is the home of the sailors they take care of it, paint it from time to time in order to keep it clean and conserve its weapons. What came into our attention, the difficulty do discriminate between the captain and the staff or between a leader and a sailor. Everyone's equal except on the ship where the captain is the <<absolute master>>. No mistakes are allowed at sea as far as the commander, comrade Afif Khoury, is concerned. For the infantry it is possible to retreat or take cover but for the sailor the boat is the only way for victory or death two principles well known by the marine, followed by an absolute obedience for the captain on board.

The bell rings once and the privates rush to their position to face danger, it is a way of communication, every alarm has a specific meaning. The quickness in dealing with the situation does not give them much time to contact the headquarters and ask for orders. Every target in the sea is an enemy until proven otherwise. No delays in abolishing the target for they have a blind self confidence, especially  when they confirm that they are the strongest artillery in Lebanon, considering the training, the experience and equipments.

Their most powerful enemy is their first and last friend: The sea. Nature, inspiration and beauty for a lot of people, becomes a real enemy that be dealt with, or else it swallows them. All the staff are well informed with all it mechanism, the training of the marines includes all the equipments and incase of emergency any private can replace any position knowing that every equipment has it's own specialist.

10:00 AM maintenance completed and the commander in chief finished it's routine and now ready to receive Al-Massira. The commander's glass room is like a permanent waiting room for any emergency military library is the only decoration in his office where you could find in addition to military books, a religious section, the Christian history...

+ The first routine question to a first visit is when the navy was founded?

- The age of the navy is the same as the age of the resistance, it started with humble fishing boats but soon the need to develop and build it on military organized foundations emerged, in the war of the <<100 days>> in 1978, the Navy was the only contact between surrounded Achrafieh and the rest of the regions. The first boat the Lebanese Forces got was called "Al-Amal" which caused arguments, so later on, was called "L'espoir" (hope in French) and helped moving combatants and ammo and equipments in those dark days. In 1979, the navy got it's second boat, made in Britain, named "Tracker" The navy kept operating with two boats and some small and rubber boats until 1981 when the Lebanese Forces purchased a number of "Dvora" boats, representing the spine of the navy. And they bought small and rubber boats, and today we are waiting for a new reinforcement and renewal of the weaponry.

+ Can you describe the role the navy is playing?

- The primary role would be military, offensive-defensive, protection the beaches, the liberated areas, from any military drop in and watching other areas' beaches, and attacking the hostile military boats or ships moving weapons.

and the navy has a military role concerning the logistic services and the paramedical like moving the injured, the weapons, the soldiers and equipments from battle zone to the gathering location. A social role based on helping the state in all it's movements on this level, like coordinating with the maritime security in hunting down the dynamite throwers, and preventing soil slides, and chemical materials, the sewers, helping the customs, the general security, and the sanitation in inspection. One of the simplest examples of the social services would be preventing the ships from discharging oil in the bay that causes water pollution. We can mention the assistance that the navy offered to save the yacht or the ship "Ghaliah" that sinked in 1983.

The visit were followed by a humble military lunch, where there were talks about military operation published in foreign military magazines, operation like the strike on the Palestinian boat 1981, headed for Haifa, and the one where the soldiers protected the shores after the failure of September's 27th operation.

A tour around the base was necessary before leaving to see where the navy has come to of self sufficiency, from the maintenance side, a workshop was built and handled with specialized engineers and technicians, trying the impossible to provide the exterior maintenance and reaching for the ultimate self sufficiency. The sea, as they say doesn't accept the weak, it expel it.

A quick look at the maritime radar center convinces more that the navy is really not what they think.

Dvora information :

Weight : 46 ton.

Sizes    : 21 & 62 x 5,49 x 0,94

Weaponry : Two cannons, Two 20mm machine guns.

Radar : Deka 926.

Engines : M-T-U 2 - 331712, power 2,720 horses.

Used in the following countries : Argentine, Israel, Chili, Nicaragua, and lastly a number of it was delivered to Sri Lanka.

Dvora Can face the Soviet boats <<Uza>> and <<Komar>>  which are used by the Syrians.

                                                                    
                                               DESIGNED AND HOSTED BY AL_HAKIM                                                                     Copyright © 2004 #lebanese-forces All rights reserved.