Israel’s Defense Ministry and the German company Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems signed an agreement for the development and production of three advanced submarines for the Israeli Navy. The $3.4 billion deal includes subsidies from Germany, lowering the cost to Israel to about $2.73 billion. The first of the new series Dakar submarines, set to replace three older German-built Dolphin class submarines currently in Israel’s naval fleet, will be delivered within nine years, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The agreement was signed in Thursday by the Defense Ministry’s director-general, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel, and ThyssenKrupp’s Executive Board chairman, Dr. Rolf Wirtz, at Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv. They also signed an industrial strategic cooperation agreement that amounts to $965 million, which deals with investment in Israeli industries, including defense companies.
“I am confident that the new submarines will upgrade the capabilities of the Israeli Navy, and will contribute to Israel’s security superiority in the region,” Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement.
The deal was signed even as Gantz and Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid plan to as soon as next week ask the government to set up a committee to investigate the submarine deal with Germany over allegations of corruption. The purchase of two other submarines that have already been delivered to Israel is at the center of one of the three corruption cases for which former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu currently is on trial.