The state-of-the-art submarines, manufactured by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG, will be bought by Israel for 1.27 billion dollars, a third of which will be financed by the German government, the English-language daily said.A third financed by German Govt. They must be really sorry about the Holocaust...
Just in case you have thought that this is an entirely new purchase. The Israeli Navy already have 3 such submarines. This is a much more recent additional purchase. They need more of these submarines maybe due to the fact that they will not be vulnerable to the anti-ship missiles used by the Hizbollah which struck the missile corvette recently. Cheers!Originally posted by beavan:like why would they need such an asset?
The first-of-class INS (Israeli Naval Ship) Dolphin was commissioned in 1999, INS Leviathan and INS Tekuma in 2000. The mission of the submarines is to carry out interdiction and surveillance operations and special missions. They replaced the Gal Class submarines, which entered service in 1977.http://www.israeli-weapons.com/weapons/naval/dolphin/Dolphin.html