- Middle East News, Germany has agreed to sell Israel another
two Dolphin-class submarines, They will join the three Dolphin ?class submarines
already operated by the Israeli navy, making Israel one of the premier
maritime powers in the Arabian Sea.
-
- The new pair of submarines, like the first three, will
be built at the Kiel-based Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, the world?s
biggest builder of diesel submarines. The new boats are more advanced in
that they will able to stay submerged for longer than the first Dolphins.
The reported cost for the two craft is $700 million.
-
- Berlin has overcome its reluctance to the craft being
fitted with nuclear cruise missiles, in the interests of a newly adopted
more aggressive defense exports policy, and out of understanding that the
EU's attempts to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program is unlikely to succeed.
-
- Israel already has a major presence in the area. It has
a naval and air base at Dahlak, a small island owned by Eritrea just outside
the strategic Bab el Mandeb straits, where the Red Sea enters the Arabian
Sea. At least one of its three Dolphin submarines is always on patrol in
the Arabian Sea.
-
- In May 2000 Israel is reported to have secretly carried
out its first test launches from two German-built Dolphin-class submarines
of cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. According to foreign
military and intelligence sources, the missiles launched from vessels off
Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean are said to have hit a target at a range
of about 1,500 kilometers. The missiles reportedly carry a 200kg nuclear
warhead containing 6kg of plutonium.
-
- http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=80314
|
