Defense News reports: TEL AVIV — Two teams of Israeli Navy specialists are working full time with German shipyards in Hamburg and Kiel to build Israel’s sixth strategic submarine and design the backbone of Israel’s future surface fleet.
Both mega projects — the estimated $2 billion, three-vessel Dolphin-class air independent propulsion (AIP) program and the estimated €500 million (US $560 million), four-ship Sa’ar-6 corvette program — are subsidized in part by the German government.
They also involve extensive Israel-unique engineering modifications, which a top officer in Israel said benefits not only the Israeli Navy but the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) shipyards, too.
“Building for the Israel Navy enriches your brand as a marine company,” Rear Adm. Yossi Ashkenazi, head of the Israeli Navy’s Materiel Command, said of TKMS, the Kiel-based prime contractor for both programs.
Aside from the employment gained as a result of these long-running, multiyear programs, proprietary Israeli technology developed for both programs improves the competitive standing of the shipyard and its string of subcontractors, said Ashkenazi.
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