Due to the war in Gaza, our original plan to set sail in Alexandria, then follow the Levant coast to Sidon and finally swing west to Taurus was cancelled. We start in Cyprus instead. Still, we are going to sail over waters filled with Dolphins and Dragons – but not the type you would expect.
Our Route will take us from Cyprus to Bodrum - north of Rhodes - over the East Med Basin
The eastern Mediterranean Basin is the home turf of Israel’s Navy which was set up in1948 to protect the country's shores from invasion and bombardments. Its first naval vessels were discarded English and American warships from WWII which otherwise would have ended on the scrapyard. Israel’s main naval base is Haifa. Its second port with fewer vessels is Eilat which gives it access go the Red Sea. After the Israeli destroyer Eilat was sunk by Egyptian missile boats in 1967, the Israeli Navy embarked on an ambitious modernization program.
The Israeli Destroyer Eilat was sunk off the Nile Delta by small Egyptian Missile Boats
Today, Israel has one of the most modern navies in the world. Despite being small it packs a punch. Its missile technology is outstanding. In 1999, Israel bought Dolphin submarines from HDW in Kiel, Germany. They were derived from the successful submarine 212 which earned a fearsome reputation in NATO. The 212s are still used to simulate attacks against American Carriers – and get through most of the time. They are so silent. One of the people working with me at Deutsche was a reservist submarine captain who led some of these simulated attacks. The Dolphins are 67 meters long. They weight 1’900 tons below surface. They need 35 crew to operate and can stay for days below water. Of the 10 torpedo tubes, 4 are larger and can fire cruise missiles.
The INS Drakon (Dragon) is a Dolphin Class II Submarine which carries nuclear weapons
Israel is right now in another wave of upgrades. Of the total 6 Dolphin class submarines the 3 Dolphin Class II types are extended in length and get a longer sail. The power for the refurbished Dragon (commissioned in 2023) is now supplied by fuel cells which allow it to stay even longer below surface. The precise time is classified. Must be more than the 14 days for other similar submarines. This allows the Dragon to wait silently - hidden below several layers of salinity. They are impossible to detect in the salty waters of the eastern Mediterranean. Even the US Navy cannot locate them. A Dragon can dive to 350 meters depth. Our Dragon Fly may sail above one of them without ever knowing.
In Summer 2018 our boar was intercepted by the Israeli
Navy twenty Miles outside Haifa - we were thoroughly
searched and interrogated - and then the Captain wished
us "Have a wonderful Holiday in Israel"
Israel invests so much money in these ultramodern and silent submarines because they are part of the nuclear triad, their three-pillar based nuclear deterrence. The country never admits to own nuclear weapons but everybody knows that it has 300 nuclear warheads.
A Dolphin Class I submarine on the way home to its Naval Base
The Israeli Defence Forces have three independent nuclear delivery systems to never lose the ability to retaliate. Their F-15 Eagle fighter jets have a range of 3’500 km. All of Iran is within their range. Israel also has in-flight refuelling tankers to extend the Eagles' reach. They are complemented by the Jericho III ballistic missile. It is impossible to know where they are located and to find reliable information about them The missile is rumoured to have a range of 4’000 to 10’000 miles and a warhead with 200 kilotons (10 times the Nagasaki bomb from 1945).
The Popeye Missile is rumoured to have a 1'000 miles range
The last part of the nuclear triad are the Dolphin submarines. Of their 10 torpedo tubes, 4 are larger and can launch cruise missiles. These missiles are ejected in a bubble of pressured air and ignite when reaching the surface. Called Popeye Turbo, they have a range of around 1’000 miles. Enough to reach Teheran from the both the Mediterranean or Hormuz. They also carry a 200 kiloton warhead. With 7'000 nautical miles of range, the Dragon submarine can travel to almost any place in the world.  A few years ago, the US Navy observed a secret test of the IDF in the Indian Ocean. A Dolphin submarine fired a Popeye missile over 1’000 miles and hit the target.
Not sure whether this is the precise site of the missile test
Israel’s nuclear capacity and Iran’s aggressive foreign policy shifted the political paradigm in the Middle East over the last three decades. For Arab States, stopping Iran has become more important than the Palestine problem. All the rapprochements between Israel and Arab governments are based on their view that Israel is a more reliable ally than the United States. Israel does not have the means to check Iran’s nuclear threat except by building its own nuclear deterrence. Arabs understand this and want to build the same capacity too. Israel got its nuclear technology not from America but from France. The US will not give nuclear knowhow to Saudi Arabia. But Israel may.
In this light, the conflict in Gaza can be seen as an attempt by Teheran to derail an emerging Israeli – Saudi alliance. In the eyes of the world, the plight of the Palestinian people matters. I suspect that Teheran just saw an opportunity to split a newly forming alliance and throw the Palestinians under the bus of a not winnable war.      Â