Tag: submarine

Germany sells fifth nuclear submarine to Israel

Germany’s Federal Security Council has approved the export of a fifth submarine to Israel.

It’s the penultimate submarine promised to Israel by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and will be handed over by the company Thyssen Krupp.

Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper revealed the approval, citing the Federal Security Council’s report to the parliamentary Economics Committee.

Germany’s Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) builds the new Air Independent Propulsion Dolphins and the decision to sell them has been criticized for two reasons. One, in that German taxpayers are shouldering a third of the cost.

Secondly, the vessels are reportedly capable of being equipped with nuclear weapons.

Peter Roberts is an expert in sea power and naval weapons systems at the Royal United Services Institute in London and told Sputnik News that Israel will want to produce and develop nuclear capability on the new submarines.

“That’s the long term aspiration”, says Roberts. “But does it have it right now? No.

“These are new batch of submarines that Israel is receiving which have a markedly increased capability on what they’d had previously in terms of range, covertness and ability to reach different parts of the world then they had previously been able to do.”

Roberts adds that the submarines have the capability to become nuclear armed, “but probably not right now.”

“Several hurdles have to be overcome before it can be armed with a nuclear warhead.”

He explains that the key to being able to arm the submarines with nuclear weapons is down to the delivery mechanism.

“The Israelis rely on the fact they could fire the Popeye submarine missile — a system that the Americans successfully launched in 2002. But traditionally the Israelis only keep the Harpoon anti-ship missile.”

“These are the first submarines that will be able to fire this missile, the size of the torpedo tubes allow it to be fired, they have a bigger tubes for bigger missiles.

“The submarines would have the ability to launch them [missiles] — it’s the weapon itself that is the critical part and developing that weapon and navigation system for the guidance from within a submerged submarine is a further challenge.”

Peter Roberts says it’s difficult to say whether the submarines are distinctly designed for nuclear weapons.

“The Israelis will want to add this to their golf bag of capability which will give them huge resilience in their nuclear forces — but they’re not there yet.”

According to an article written by Anthony Bellchambers for Global Research, the Dolphin Class nuclear powered submarines “that have already been converted by the Israeli navy to being armed with ICB nuclear missiles…has given the Israeli state ‘deep sea dominance’ that is now virtually irreversible.”

Adding that German Chancellor Merkel agreed to supply Israel with the vessels “without any prior consultation with the EU.”

Ukraine’s navy blocked by sunken ships

Russia has reportedly sunk three of its own ships to block Ukrainian navy vessels into a lake off the Black Sea, Ukranian officers say, highlighting Moscow’s determination to wear down the morale of Kiev’s forces in Crimea.

The Ochakov — a Soviet-era warship decommissioned in 2011 and set to be sold for scrap — was towed to the entrance to Lake Donuzlav on Crimea’s western coast from the Russian base at Sevastopol on Thursday and blown up.

It capsized and, along with two smaller Russian vessels, is now blocking the narrow gap between two spits of land, its hull beaten by rough Black Sea waves.

Ukraine’s navy has limited resources and suffered a major blow last week when its chief Denis Berezovsky switched allegiance to the pro-Russian Crimean authorities and a new chief was appointed.

But officers at a base near where the Russians sank the ship have no doubt what the Russians were trying to do and insist they will not be shaken by the tactics.

“It is blocked so we cannot get out,” said Capt. Viktor Shmyganovsky, second-in-command at the base in Novoozerne, one of the four biggest in Crimea.

“If it wasn’t blocked, we could have taken our ships to Odessa and it would stop them being seized by Russian forces. We would be more powerful in alliance with ships in Odessa.”

Ukraine’s navy headquarters is in Sevastopol, where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was founded under Imperial Russia 230 years ago.

Odessa, further round the coast into Ukraine and the country’s largest port, offers a safer option amid the current military situation in Crimea, a semi-autonomous region of Ukraine.

Officers at the Novoozerne base declined to confirm how many Ukrainian ships were currently in Lake Donuzlav, while hinting at submarine capability.

But Ukraine’s navy is around a tenth of the size of Russia’s and suffers from “inadequate finances”, according to London-based military affairs think-tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Ukraine only has one, Soviet-built submarine which it is currently trying to restore to “service condition after over a decade of inactivity,” it adds.

Despite the odds stacking up against them, the Ukrainian navy is determined to stand its ground to the end in this storied naval territory, said Shmyganovsky.

Source: DefenceNews

Russia test-fires nuclear missile

A TV crew was on board a Borey-class nuclear submarine as it was test-firing a Bulava nuclear missile on Wednesday. A video from the sub shows people entrusted with one of the world’s most powerful weapons in action.

The Yury Dolgoruky fired its deadly cargo from the Barents sea in Russia’s north to the Far-Eastern test range of Kura.

Footage from the scene shows tense seamen and officers in blue uniforms going through the launch protocol, using the same language they would use in case of a real nuclear war.

The moment the missile departed was noticeable everywhere on the giant submarine, as it sent tremors through its hulls.

When the reports arrived that the Bulava had hit its intended target some 5,000 km away, crew members cheered and applauded.

Bulava is the newest generation of Russian submarine-launched strategic nuclear missiles paired with new Borey-class submarines as their designated carriers. The K-535 Yury Dolgoruky can carry up to 16 of them in its launchers.

Sweden abandons its search for ‘underwater threat’

The Swedish Navy has halted its search for an alleged foreign submarine in the country’s territorial waters near Stockholm, The Local cited the Navy as saying Friday.

“At 8 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT) a major naval operation, launched in the area of the [Stockholm] archipelago last Friday, has completed,” the Navy said in a statement broadcast by the local television.

No reason was given for abandoning the search.

On October 22, the Swedish Armed Forces said the search for an alleged foreign submarine is entering a “new phase” and will continue for as long as necessary.

The Russian Defense Ministry believes the military operation in the Baltic conducted by Sweden in search of possible “foreign underwater activity” can only lead to undermining stability and escalate tension in the region.

Swedish Armed forces were ready to use force if they detected any foreign submarine in the waters of the Stockholm Archipelago, the supreme commander general had said during the operation in search of the “underwater threat”.

“Such unfounded actions of the Swedish Defense Department, fuelled by the Cold War-style rhetoric, are only leading today to escalation of tension in the region,” Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told journalists on Friday.

“It might result not in strengthening of a particular country’s security, but in undermining the principles of the naval economic activity in the Baltic Sea,” he added.

Sweden started its largest since the Cold War military operation in the Baltic a week ago, explaining that the troops were engaged in search of a possible “foreign underwater activity.”

Swedish forces issue false info on foreign submarine

On Sunday, Sweden’s Armed Forces released a photograph of an object, suspected to be a foreign submarine in the Stockholm archipelago and a map, allegedly showing where the photo was taken.

The area of the sighting was reported to be Jungfrufjärden, a fjard near the settlement of Dalarö south of Stockholm.

However, an investigation carried out by Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT showed that no locations in the area matched the photograph.

After being confronted by the SVT’s journalists, Swedish forces admitted issuing false information to avoid “helping foreign powers”.

“In retrospect, I should have been clearer during the press conference that I was showing a map with the approximate positions because I did not wish to reveal any exact positions with regard to the operation,” deputy operational director Anders Grenstad said late Monday.

Swedish forces first launched a major operation off the coast of Stockholm on Friday after receiving information, reportedly from a civilian, about the presence of an unknown underwater object in the region, suspected to be a foreign submarine.