Which of these operations was related to the "Cherbourg project"?
The Cherbourg Project was a secret Israeli military operation that took place on 24 December, 1969 involving the escape of five remaining armed Sa'ar 3 class missile boats from the French port of Cherbourg. The cost of boats had been paid by the Israeli government but had not been delivered due to the French arms embargo in 1969. The whole operation was planned by the Israeli navy, and was codenamed "Operation Noa".
The Israeli naval command had reached the conclusion by the early 1960s that their old Second World War-era destroyers, frigates and corvettes were obsolete and new vessels and ships were needed. The Israeli government paid french Cherbourg-based company Felix Amiot to build the boats, based upon the German designs and plans. However, the French president - Charles de Gaulle - stopped the export of weapons to Israel after the Six-Day war. Israel had been developing seaborne surface-to-surface missiles, but the new vessels they would be launched from were now being built at Cherbourg.
Secretly planned, the Israeli boats sailed on 24 December, 1969 from Cherbourg port, fuelled with a large amount of diesel and stocked with enough food to sustain an eight-day voyage. The Israeli boats sailed a total of 3,145 nautical miles (5,825 km; 3619 mi), beginning in the English Channel, and arriving at the Kishon Shipyard port in Haifa bay on 31 December. The whole operation faced many hurdles but the boats were met with public jubilation when they arrived in Israel.
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