Boats
- Dolphin – delivered May 1998 – commissioned 1999
- Leviathan (trans. "Leviathan" or "whale") – delivered 1999 – commissioned 2000
- Tekumah (trans. "Revival") – delivered 2000 – commissioned 2000
- Tannin (trans. "Tannin" or "Crocodile") – delivered May 3rd 2012
- Rahav (trans. "Rahab") – delivery expected in 2013
- Name not assigned yet. Ordered 21 March 2012.
The first two (Dolphin and Leviathan) were fully donated by Germany and the third (Tekumah) was paid for halfway by Israel. During the first Gulf War, German firms were accused of helping Iraq with its chemical weapons program, which led to protests in both Germany and Israel. To calm Israeli concerns, compensate Israel for economic losses and keep German shipyards occupied, then Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl approved an assistance package including the construction of two Dolphin submarines.
The names Dolphin and Leviathan hail from the retired Israeli WW-II era submarines of the British T class; the third boat Tekuma (translation: Revival) refers in memory of Dakar, the third Israeli boat of the T class which was lost with all Israeli crew in the Mediterranean Sea during delivery. The forthcoming boats Tannin and Rahav are names taken from retired Gal-class submarines, which were themselves named after even older Israeli S class boats.
Read more about this topic: Dolphin Class Submarine
Famous quotes containing the word boats:
“The frowsy sponge boats keep coming in
with the obliging air of retrievers,”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)
“You men have proved that PT boats have some value in this war. Washington wants you back in the States to build them up. Those are my orders.”
—Frank W. Wead (1895?–1947)
“Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)