GERMANY READY TO SIGN ISRAELI SUB DEAL

Middle East Newsline ^ | 07/06/2006

[sukhoi-30mki]

GERMANY READY TO SIGN ISRAELI SUB DEAL

LONDON [MENL] -- Germany has been preparing to formally approve the sale of advanced submarines to Israel.

The German daily Die Welt said on July 1 that the Berlin government would approve the sale of two Dolphin-class diesel submarines to Israel in July. The newspaper said Israel and Germany would sign an agreement over the next few weeks.

The agreement was said to have resolved a long dispute between Israel and Germany over the price of the submarines. Die Welt said Israel would purchase the two Dolphins, manufactured by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, for $1.27 billion. Israel already has three Dolphin-class submarines.

Berlin was also ready to sell armored personnel carriers to Israel. Die Welt said the government has approved the export of the Dingo-2 wheeled all-protected vehicle to Israel for trials. NOTE: The above is not the full item.

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[sukhoi-30mki]

Dingo-2

Dolphin SSK

[sukhoi-30mki]

ping!!

[garbageseeker]

The Germans make the best subs.

[sukhoi-30mki]

They do,but the rest are working on interesting concepts.Sweden,Spain etc are looking to add land attack cruise missiles to their SSKs,while Russia is offering a D/E with a 10 cell VLS.

[familyop]

Ping!

[garbageseeker]

I thought that German subs can be equipped with land attack cruise missiles?

[defenderSD]

Unfortunately nobody wants to sell subs to Taiwan and incur the wrath of China.

[garbageseeker]

I thought the U.S. were going to sell the Taiwanese some outdated subs as part of a military package.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Well any sub can be.The Israelis have supposedly done it for their Dolphins.But doing it via torpedo tubes reduces your overall warload for the SSK's main tasks.Thats why this Russian VLS concept appears very interesting.

[garbageseeker]

I agree.

[defenderSD]

We are planning to sell subs to Taiwain, but last I heard we're still working on buying the design and blueprints from another country (probably European) and then we have to find a shipyard to build the subs at a reasonable cost here in America. No country other than us wants to build these subs on their soil, so we're working on bringing back a diesel sub shipyard. I read somewhere that the liberals in Taiwain think the price of the subs is too high, and the Taiwanese legislature hasn't approved the purchase yet.

Same old story: nobody in Taiwan wants Chinese soldiers marching through their back yard, but they don't want to pay the high price for submarines, which are not made in sufficient numbers these days to bring down the price.

[sukhoi-30mki]

The US has little to offer to Taiwan without assistance from either Europe or Japan.The US last exported D/Es in the late 70s if im not mistaken.

[defenderSD]

Forgot to mention: IIRC, the package included used destoyers but new diesel submarines.

[garbageseeker]

I heard and read the same stories too.

[defenderSD]

Yeah, IIRC we have to get the blueprints from a company in Europe or Japan because we haven't built a disel sub since the 1960's.

[defenderSD]

I thought so....just bringing everybody else up to date as best I recall this story.

[garbageseeker]

The Taiwanese wanted the Aegis destroyers but they settled with older model destroyers.We are on the same page.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Well that would still mean that a EUROPEAN design is needed.The EU doesnt want to upset its ties with China.An easy way out would have been for Japan to part with some of its SSK tech,but that would really p*** off Beijing.The problem is acerbated by the fact that there are effectively 3 SSK Designer/builders in Europe-Germany,France & the Dutch.

[garbageseeker]

I remember reading it in the Washington Times but I also cannot remember the date.

[sukhoi-30mki]

I think Taiwan is planning to build a new destroyer class with the AEGIS & SM-2 systems on it.