Shayetet 3
Israeli flotilla
The Missile Ship Fleet, officially called Shayetet 3, is the main surface combat force of the Israeli Navy. The fleet was established in 1967 and includes 15 missile ships of the Saar 4.5, Saar 5 and Saar 6 models. In addition, the Ahi Bat Yam auxiliary ship is under its command. It is the only fleet of the Israeli Navy operating Surface vessels (as the Israeli Navy only uses submarines and missile ships).
Roles
The cruise missions of the missile ships are derived from the mission of the Israeli Navy: "to give a safe coast and open navigation to Israel". In times of war, the Navy's duties are naval warfare against the enemy's fleets, assistance to the ground forces, shelling of installations and traffic routes on the enemy's coast, securing the shipping lanes to Israel and protecting the country's beaches.
Except in times of war, the fleet is assigned various tasks: operations to gather intelligence, regular security patrols against hostile sabotage activity and preventing the supply of weapons to terrorist elements and providing backup to ground forces in operational operations. In the 2nd decade of the 21st century, with the establishment of the drilling arrays and gas production, drilling: Tamar, Leviathan and Tanin in the Mediterranean Sea, the navy's missions were expanded and they also include security of the state's assets at sea.
Fleet
Missile corvettes
Missile boats
Organisation
The fleet is divided into four combat squadrons.
Squadron 31 - Squadron of Sa'ar 4.5 : INS Tarshish, INS Herev and INS Sufa, INS Hetz.
“Shayetet 3” enters the record as israeli flotilla. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shayetet, Israeli and flotilla can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Shayetet 3” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Shayetet, Israeli and flotilla provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12411638. VIAF identifies the subject as 186889304. The Library of Congress control number is no2011140456. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shayetet 3”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shayetet 3 primary sources, Shayetet 3 archive and Shayetet research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shayetet 3”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Shayetet 3” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.