Israel on schedule to receive new submarines in 2014, 2017

The Israeli Defence Force will expand its submarine fleet to 6 Dolphin class boats by 2017.

Israel gets ready to expand its submarine fleet

HAIFA, Israel, July 29 (UPI) — The Israeli navy is getting ready to expand its fleet of German-built Dolphin-class submarines that are widely believed to give it the only seaborne nuclear missile capability in the Middle East.

Three early-model Dolphins are already in service and reportedly range as far as the Indian Ocean south of Iran. But the navy’s moving closer to deploying two more of the 1,720-ton, diesel-electric boats built by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in the Baltic port of Kiel. HWD is a unit of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

The fourth Dolphin, christened the Tanin, was handed over to the Israeli navy by HDW in May 2012 and is due to become operational within the next few months following sea tests and evaluation.

The fifth boat, the Rahav, was launched in Kiel April 29 and is expected to arrive in Israel’s northern port of Haifa, the submarine fleet’s headquarters and main base, around mid-2014.

A contract for a sixth Dolphin, the most advanced of the series, was signed with the German government in May 2012 after differences over payment.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also imposed a series of political conditions on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, including unblocking $100 million a month in customs duties imposed on the Palestinian Authority and other funds blocked by Israel.

The sixth Dolphin is scheduled to reach Israel in 2017.

Little information on the Dolphin operations is ever released, though it is general understood that with the current three boats operational, one is on patrol in the Red Sea or Indian Ocean, covering Iran and its gunrunning routes to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

One is at Haifa on refit, while the third is cruising the Mediterranean.

After the Israelis supposedly knocked out an arms depot outside the Syrian port and naval base at Latakia July 5, where the regime was said to be storing ship-killing, Russian-supplied P-800 Yakhont missiles, there were reports — never substantiated — that a Dolphin in the Mediterranean had unleashed a broadside of land-attack missiles on the site.

The Dolphins carry conventional versions of the Popeye Turbo cruise missile for that kind of mission. These are manufactured by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

The navy adapted the original air-launched version of the Popeye for the Dolphin force. The U.S. Navy tracked a secret Israeli submarine-launched Popeye test in the Indian Ocean in 2002 in which the missile hit a target at a range of nearly 950 miles.

The Dolphins, based on the design of HDW’s U-209 class sub, have a range of about 2,700 miles, although this has been likely extended in the three advanced models Israel’s now getting.

Expanding the Jewish state’s submarine force from three units to six is no trivial matter since it will involve finding and training men for the Dolphins, which usually carry 35-man crews.

These systems will form the navy’s strategic spearhead that will add immense firepower to Israel’s nuclear triad of air-, land- and sea-based weapons, which in the event of war with Iran over its contentious nuclear program would play a vital role in taking out nuclear facilities or other strategic targets.

Manning the new Dolphins, and having backup crews for rotations, will have to be implemented without weakening the quality of existing crews.

The Israeli military’s Bamachaneh magazine reports that the number of personnel selected for submarine warfare has grown by 30 percent in recent recruitment intakes.

According to published reports in Israel, that’s a significant shift in a country where the arm and the air force traditionally have been given precedence when it comes to top-quality recruits.

Israel’s Arutz Sheva news outlet reported that more officers are being trained for submarine posts and the number of cadets who will be trained for submarine command has been rising by 35 percent.

The head of the navy’s high school outreach program, identified only as Maj. Yisrael, said the project began in 2012 as the new subs were still being built in Kiel. He expects about 30 percent of the young sailors who attend a five-day introductory program at the Naval Instruction Base at Haifa this year will reach the navy’s training course phase after enlisting.

The major told one group of 11th-graders: “To serve in submarines is unique … . This is all-important work but it won’t be publicized and submarine crew members can’t tell anyone what they do.”

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/07/29/Israel-gets-ready-to-expand-its-submarine-fleet/UPI-14761375130539/

Israel submarine launched cruise missiles destroyed Syrian arms depot

At first glance, the Dolphin class appears to be a conventional Type 209 SSK with standard torpedo tubes, but the Dolphin also has oversized 650mm (26in) tubes that can launch the Popeye Turbo SLCM… and that seems to be sufficient to deal Assad’s regime a hefty blow 🙂

Israeli submarine responsible for July attack on Syrian arms depot – report

Israeli submarine “Dolphin” (AFP Photo / Gali Tibbon)

Israeli submarines carried out the attack on an arms depot in the Syrian port city of Latakia on July 5, according to a report published in the British Sunday Times. US media previously claimed the offensive was carried out by the Israel Air Force.

The Times cited Middle East intelligence sources as stating that the Israeli Dolphin-class submarines targeted a contingent of 50 Russian-made Yakhont P-800 anti-ship missiles that had reportedly arrived earlier this year to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The alleged Israeli naval strike was repotedly closely coordinated with the US.

According to the newspaper, the Israeli fleet of German-built submarines launched a cruise missile at the weapons cache after which Syrian rebels reportedly attested to hearing early-morning explosions at a Syrian port-side naval barracks.

Syrian rebels said that they were not responsible for the explosions.

A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army’s Supreme Military Council, Qassem Saadeddine, confirmed the attack hit Syrian Navy barracks at Safira. He said the rebel forces’ intelligence network had identified the newly supplied Yakhont missiles being stored there.

According to the rebels, the scale of the blasts was beyond the firepower available to them, but consistent with that of a modern military like Israel’s.

“It was not the FSA that targeted this,” Saadeddine told Reuters. “It is not an attack that was carried out by rebels. This attack was either by air raid or long-range missiles fired from boats in the Mediterranean,” he added.

The pre-dawn attack was first reported by CNN.

A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 5, 2013, allegedly shows, “the damage caused by an Israeli strike” according to SANA (AFP Photo)

Several unnamed US officials allegedly told The New York Times, in an article published on Saturday, that the Israeli Air Force had targeted the Russian-made anti-ship missiles that posed a threat to Israel’s naval forces.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack.

“We have set red lines in regards to our own interests, and we keep them. There is an attack here, an explosion there, various versions – in any event, in the Middle East it is usually we who are blamed for most,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said in response to the Latakia blasts.

The Syrian government has not commented on the incident either; a state television report mentioned a “series of explosions” at the site.

According to regional intelligence sources, cited by Reuters, the Israelis previously struck in Syria at least three times earlier this year to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry from Assad’s army to Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

In all prior cases of strikes thought to be linked to Israel’s armed forces, Israeli officials have not gone on record to take responsibility for the attacks. Tel Aviv has made it clear however, that the country is prepared to go into Syria if it means preventing Hezbollah or other militant groups from obtaining additional weaponry, including chemical weapons.

http://rt.com/news/israeli-submarine-%20strike-syria-081/