Israel's new sub fleet upsets Arab neighbors

CAIRO -- Arab officials are quietly expressing concern over Israel's new fleet of diesel submarines.

Arab officials and defense analysts said Israel's fleet of three Dolphin-class submarines will bolster the strategic deterrence of the Jewish state. They also said the fleet will enable Israel to launch long-range attacks against such targets as Iran, Iraq and Libya.

The officials said the United States has helped Israel in testing the submarines, including persuading Spain to allow the vessels to travel through its territorial waters on the way to a secret test in the Indian Ocean. Spain wanted assurances that the submarines did not contain nuclear missiles.

Over the last few weeks, Arab defense sources have provided details of the Israeli Dolphin fleet, manufactured in Germany. Two of the submarines have already arrived and a third is expected by October.

The sources said the submarines contain 24 cruise missiles, which can be tipped with a nuclear warhead. They said the vessels will be able to strike at targets 1,500 kilometers from Israel.

"Each of the nuclear warheads will have a destructive power greater than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima [Japan in 1945]," the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat said.

The newspaper said the submarines -- weighing at 1,720 tons -- will provide Israel with naval nuclear capability that will complement the country's air and ground capability. It said Israel successfully tested a cruise missile in the Indian Ocean after Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy held talks in Madrid and Washington regarding the Dolphin's capability.

In a related development, after 31 years, Israel will try to raise the Dakar submarine from the floor of the Mediterranean. The Dakar submarine sank without a trace in the Mediterranean between Britain and Israel.

In May 1999, investigators from the Maryland-based Nauticus Corp. spotted the Dakar lying on the ocean floor 500 kilometers from Israeli shores.

In September, the Nauticus team will try to raise portions of the Dakar, a 400-ton British submarine. The team will try to discover the cause of the accident.