NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
חֵיפָה [Haifa] (ex-Ibrahim El Awal, ex-Mohammed Ali)	K38		Swan Hunter, Wallsend, UK	8/1940	9.4.1940	10.1940 // 31.10.1956	expended 1968

Technical data

Displacement standard, t	1000
Displacement full, t	1450
Length, m	80.5 pp 85.3 oa
Breadth, m	8.84
Draught, m	3.81 deep load
No of shafts	2
Machinery	2 sets Parsons geared steam turbines, 2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Power, h. p.	19000
Max speed, kts	28
Fuel, t	oil 240
Endurance, nm(kts)	2500(20)
Armament	2 x 2 - 102/45 Mk 19, 2 x 1 - 40/39 Mk 8, 4 x 1 - 20/70 Mk 3, 2 DCT, 1 DCR (50)
Electronic equipment	type 271, type 285, type 291 radars, type 128 sonar
Complement	147

Standard scale images

Project history

Captured off Haifa in the only major naval action of the 1956 Arab-Israeli War. The Egyptian frigate sailed from Port Said and, undetected in the darkness off the Israeli coast, fired 200rds of 102mm from 03.30 31.10.1956 at Haifa naval installations causing some damage but no casualties. The French destroyer Kersaint fired 64 rounds back but did not pursue as the Israeli destroyers Yaffa and Eilath were across the Egyptian's line of escape. They fired 436 rounds from 05.27 at ranges under 8km but it was two rocket-firing Ouragan jets which at dawn disabled Ibrahim El Awal and caused her surrender at 07.10 with two killed and eight wounded. She failed to scuttle due to rusty valves and Eilath towed her into Haifa. Commissioned into Israeli Navy January 1957.

Modernizations

None.

Naval service

No significant events.