Armed to the teeth..

.. and coming to a shore near you, Iran.

In the face of Iran's race to obtain nuclear power, Israel signed a contract with Germany last month to buy two Dolphin-class submarines that will, according to foreign reports, provide superior second-strike nuclear capabilities, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The submarines will be assembled in Germany and provided with a propulsion system allowing them to remain underwater for far longer than the submarines currently in the Israel Navy's fleet.

The new submarines - called the U212 - will be fitted with a new German technology in which the propulsion system combines a conventional diesel lead-acid battery system and an air-independent propulsion system used for slow, silent cruising, with a fuel cell equipped with oxygen and hydrogen storage.

The submarines will also incorporate specifications gleaned from Israeli experience. The Dolphins currently in the navy's fleet were tailor-made for Israel's needs and reportedly have considerable operational capability. They are designed for a crew of 35 and can support 10 passengers. They have a maximum speed of 20 knots, a range of 4,500 kilometers and, according to Jane's Defense Weekly, the capability to launch cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

"With the new German technology," an official close to the deal said, "the new submarines will be able to remain submerged for much, much longer than the older Dolphin models."

Update [28.06.2006]

A deal under which Germany will sell Israel two submarines foresees the vessels being delivered starting in 2010, and they are not being equipped to fire nuclear weapons, an official said Friday.

Some members of the German opposition have criticized the deal, citing the risk that the submarines might be used to carry nuclear weapons. Israel has never confirmed or denied that it has such weapons.

I think this fellow has got it right.

David Menashri, an Israeli expert on Iran, said Teheran is clearly determined to obtain nuclear weapons and "the purchase of additional Dolphin submarines by Israel is a small footnote in this context."

Take a wild guess who the opposition are.

In Germany, members of two opposition parties criticized the deal. Winfried Nachtwei, national security spokesman for the Greens, said the decision was wrong because Germany had obtained no guarantee the submarines would not be used to carry nuclear weapons.

"This red line should not be crossed," Nachtwei was quoted as saying by the newspaper Taz. "Otherwise it is a complete renunciation of Germany's policy of non-proliferation."

I am not surprised at the German Greens opposition to this, after all we are talking about helping out the Jews here, even thought they'd never admit it, we know they secretly hope for a Jewish relocation into a nearby sea.

However, I was surprised that they have a national security spokesman, I thought being the 'soft-on-everything' party, they wouldn't even bother with ‘old-fashioned nonsense’ like national security. Dontcha know, war is for boneheads.

Photo: IDF

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