Submarine Fleet

Israel Defense Forces:

Navy | Air Force | Ground Forces | IDF: Table of Contents

Today, the Israeli Navy has three Dolphin-class submarines in use and will receive three more from Germany in 2012 to bring its total to six. The first subs were built in the 1990's at a shipyard in Germany and were shipped to Israel in order to replace its three older Gal-class submarines which had been in use since the 1970's. The Dolphin submarines are an incredibly important part of the main combat force of the Israel Navy and serve as an efficient second-strike option for Israel in the event of a nuclear attack on the homeland.

Since the establishment of the submarine fleet at the end of the 1950s, the Israel Navy has used at least eleven submarines. The first of them, the Rahav and Tanin, arrived in Israel in 1959 and 1960. INS Tanin participated in the landing of naval commandos in the port of Alexandria and the mine attack at the entrance to the port. Their service in the Israel Navy ended in the Six Day War.

In 1964, INS Dakar, INS Dolphin and INS Leviathan were purchased from the British Navy. INS Dakar failed to reach Israel, and remains lost at sea in the eastern Mediterranean. The Israel Navy did not give up trying to locate the missing submarine and, in 1999, it was discovered by a U.S. salvage team less than two miles beneath the surface southeast of Crete at a point along the vessel's original route.

The three Gal submarines were in use after the Six Day War until the arrival of the Dolphins in the lat 1990's.

In 2011, the Navy announced plans that it hopes to double its submarine fleet from three to six by the year 2015 which would make it one of the region’s largest and most advanced fleets. Already it is using three Dolphin submarines, in late-2011 two more were under construction and on December 1, 2011, Germany agreed to sell Israel another Dolphin sub.