The German government has threatened to halt delivery of a Dolphin submarine to Israel in protest of its settlements policy, a German newspaper has confirmed.
In a report published Sunday, German officials confirmed to Der Spiegel magazine that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is making the threat to protest the recent Israeli government-approved construction of 1,100 apartments in the Gilo neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem.
Israel already has three Dolphin-class submarines, which are nuclear capable, with two more under construction in Kiel, in northern Germany. Last summer, Germany approved a $189 million discount for the purchase of a sixth submarine, which costs about $1 billion.
The first two submarines were paid for by the German government, and the following three were heavily subsidized, according to Der Spiegel. The newspaper has reported, based on a WikiLeaks cable, that the submarine subsidies were a response to Israeli demands for Holocaust reparations from Germany.
The submarine's capabilities:
Combat systems
The weapon control system is the ISUS 90-1 TCS supplied by STN Atlas Elektronik, which provides automatic sensor management, fire and weapon control, navigation and operation.
Weapons
The submarine has the capacity to carry up to 16 surface-to-surface missiles or torpedoes. The surface-to-surface missile is the submarine-launched Harpoon, which delivers a 227kg warhead to a range of 130km at high subsonic speed.
The submarine has ten bow torpedo tubes. Four of the tubes have a 650mm diameter that could provide the capability to launch swimmer delivery vehicles (SDVs). With liners the tubes could be used for torpedoes. Six tubes of 533mm diameter for launching DM2A3 torpedoes were supplied by Atlas Elektronik.
The torpedoes use wire-guided active homing to deliver a 260kg warhead at a maximum speed of 35kt to a target range of over 13km. Using passive homing and speed of 22kt, the torpedo has a range up to 28km.
The submarine can also be armed with mines. A wet and dry compartment is installed for deploying underwater swimmers.
"The submarine has the capacity to carry up to 16 surface-to-surface missiles or torpedoes."
Countermeasures
The submarine's radar warning receiver is the 4CH(V)2 Timnex electronic support measures system developed by Elbit in Haifa. The Timnex receives, identifies, displays and records the radar signal parameters. The system operates over 2GHz to 18GHz frequency bands and the processor operates at rates up to one million pulses a second.
Sensors
The Dolphin Class submarines are equipped with an Elta surface search radar operating at I band. The sonar suite includes the CSU 90 hull-mounted passive and active search and attack radar supplied by Atlas Elektronik. The PRS-3 passive ranging sonar is also supplied by Atlas Elektronik. The flank array sonar providing passive search is the type FAS-3.
The submarine has two periscopes supplied by Kollmorgen.
Propulsion
The submarine is powered by three 16V 396 SE 84 diesel engines developing 3.12MW sustained power and supplied by MTU (Motoren und Turbinen Union) Munchen GmbH, based in Munich. The submarine is equipped with three 750kW alternators, and a 2.85MW sustained power motor supplied by Siemens. The machinery drives a single shaft.
The propulsion system provides a speed of 20kt dived and a snorting speed of 11kt. The range of the submarine is 8,000 miles at a surface speed of 8kt and over 400 miles at an economical speed of 8kt dived. The hull is rated for a diving depth of 350m. The endurance of the submarine is 30 days.
JTA / naval technology
No comments:
Post a Comment