The power to paralyze a country, by way of the sea: The new vision of the Navy commander - and the lesson from the Hormuz blockade
From protecting shipping lanes and gas rigs, to interceptions and protest flotillas, and dealing with a new threat map that includes Iran and Turkey. The maritime arena is no longer a secondary sector, and it is capable of tipping the balance in a war. From a visit to the Navy's largest exercise since October 7, the change in perception is clear. The goal: to increase the fleet of warships - and to become a maritime power.
The horizon disappears. An endless carpet of blue water stretches in every direction. On the horizon, one can see dots—the silhouettes of huge merchant ships waiting to enter Israeli ports. About 98% of the goods entering the country arrive by sea—the economic, industrial, and existential lifeline of Israel. For the fighters of Division 916 aboard the 'Dvora' patrol boat, this space is not a tourist postcard and not just a civilian trade route—it is home and it is the front line of combat.
We visited in the midst of the largest branch-wide exercise the Navy has held since October 7. Three consecutive days of a massive maneuver led by the Missile Ship Flotilla (Flotilla 3), in cooperation with the Submarine Flotilla (Flotilla 7), the Naval Commando (Flotilla 13), and the routine security divisions. Over a thousand fighters in the open sea and hundreds more in headquarters and outposts are practicing extreme scenarios: from protecting critical strategic assets like the 'Tamar', 'Leviathan', and 'Karish' gas rigs, to deep strikes in distant circles.
To understand the sea, one must go through the 'Dvora'. The small and fast patrol boat is a world unto itself, managed in a language only sailors understand. The fighters 'rest on the surface', meaning they grab a corner and sleep between shifts. In the open sea, there are no mobile phones, as they are taken and locked away by the commander back at the dock. Cut off from the world, a week at sea and a week on shore, the fighters create a unique atmosphere. The glue that holds them together is the laughter, the stories, the heated arguments, and also the 'palavra'—meaning idle chatter. On Saturday night, for example, there is a strict procedure—they only cook pasta. But this detachment is also what sharpens alertness. They know that in one moment, the silence of the 'palavra' can turn into an infiltration event or the thwarting of an aerial threat.
After 20 minutes of tossing on the waves, the 'Dvora' stops. In front of us, an impressive steel monster is revealed: INS 'Atzmaut', a 'Sa'ar 6' class missile ship. A challenging climb up a rope ladder on the side of the ship takes me straight into the naval war machine. If the 'Dvora' is the infantryman, the missile ship is an entire brigade, a pinnacle of technology, a floating platform of Israeli sovereignty. In a routine year, an average missile ship logs about 1,500 sea hours. INS 'Atzmaut', which spent inconceivable periods at sea during combat to maintain readiness and not risk the ports, logged over 4,100 sea hours in 2024, and in 2026 it has already sailed more than 1,500 hours—and the year is not yet over.
Inside, dozens of fighters are in charge of some of the most advanced technological systems in the world, capable of intercepting missiles, attacking targets hundreds of kilometers away deep inland, and serving as a forward base for long ambushes under a cloak of secrecy. Months of observing a target without being exposed. The passages on the ship are narrow—steep stairs, iron, cables, and machines surround you—walking inside a war machine.
The current exercise and the events of recent years have illustrated a central insight: the maritime arena is no longer a secondary sector, but a strategic center of gravity of the first order, capable of tipping the balance in a war between powers. The confrontations we saw between the USA and Iran around the Strait of Hormuz, alongside the threats in the Bab el-Mandeb area, proved that control over maritime passages and shipping lines is no longer just a matter of routine security. It is an operational whip capable of paralyzing countries and harming them significantly in economic terms.
Against this backdrop, the Navy commander, Major General Eyal Harel, who took office in April this year, is promoting an especially ambitious goal, the essence of which is turning the Israeli Navy into a 'regional power'. The strategic plan includes increasing the missile ship fleet from 15 today to 17, 19, and later even to 21 warships, equipping with multi-mission 'Reshef' class ships, and tightening international collaborations—from the Greek Navy to alliances in Africa with countries like Ethiopia or Somaliland.
A look at the future threat map will put this vision to the test. Turkey, for example, has been promoting naval assets for a long time into areas where it was not before. This is not the reference threat, but the situation in the Middle East, as we have already seen, can change in an instant. The Navy has also dealt in recent years with 'protest flotillas'—a look at the handling of the recent flotillas teaches of a brilliant operational concept designed to eliminate the threat 5-6 days before it reaches the shores of Israel.
'The forces arrive with a security envelope that knows how to isolate the flotilla boats. The commando fighters raid the boats in the dark, arrest the activists, and thus go boat by boat. A senior security official likens it to a game of snooker. Once you have caught the first boat, all the others split in different directions,' explains a senior security official. 'We close in on them quickly, and then there is time—we dismantle 40 boats in a night. We monitor the shipping route and then act again. Most of them just want to be done with it. There are skippers who do it for the money; they are not really interested in Gaza or a blockade. They say it themselves.'
The fighters on the missile ship are exceptional and different from the rest of the IDF landscape. They are very cohesive—turning a page in a book instead of scrolling through a video on Instagram. They learn about machines instead of taking pictures in a spectacular landscape. Some walk around with an MP3 player. Yes—there are still such people, and they serve in the Navy. The missile ship is divided into modules—each area has a 'chief'. In order to avoid exceptional cases of fire or sinking, every part of the warship is isolated and can be 'cut off' from the rest.
Ultimately, the human quality of the Navy is beyond doubt—the male and female fighters who spend weeks in the open sea, cut off from any contact with the outside world and managing a tense emergency routine, are the true and brave protective wall of the State of Israel. Alongside this, it is important to note that in a total and complex war, in which Israel's shipping and supply routes will be attacked simultaneously in several distant sectors, the branch will have to deal with exceptionally large volumes of fire.
The three days of the exercise have ended. The fighters on INS 'Atzmaut' and on the 'Dvoras' are returning to shore for a bit of oxygen, maintenance of the vessels, and perhaps a few calls home, before they go down to the sea again. The Navy of today understands well the magnitude of the hour, aspires to strengthen itself, and wants to improve at every moment. But the road from an excellent, flexible, and sharp tactical fleet to a 'maritime power' in the Mediterranean is still long. The State of Israel will have to invest efforts in building the force of the branch, and its current commander hopes he will succeed in doing so.
