Israel welcomes 6th submarine, INS Drakon, to Haifa naval base
Israel formally welcomed its sixth submarine, INS Drakon, into service on Thursday during a ceremony at the Haifa Naval Base attended by President Isaac Herzog, Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
The submarine was built in Kiel, Germany, where Israeli Navy personnel and others involved in the project have worked over the past two years.
“Eighty-one years after the horrors of the Holocaust, the nation-state of the Jewish people is building, together with Germany, the crown jewel of global defense engineering,” Herzog said, calling the cooperation between the two countries symbolic “almost beyond comprehension.”
Herzog also highlighted the growing two-way defense relationship between Israel and Germany, noting that Israel both imports German defense capabilities and exports advanced defense systems to Germany.
The president said the Drakon represents a new generation of capabilities for the Israeli Navy, including greater operational range.
“A future of innovation, of broader operational reach, and of power at the disposal of the State of Israel, greater than ever before,” Herzog said. “A power we will be able to deploy, and will not hesitate to deploy when necessary, even thousands of kilometers from Israel’s borders.”
Herzog concluded by emphasizing the role of the submarine’s crew despite the vessel’s advanced technology.
“However advanced and costly that machine may be, it is the person who will always bring victory and the ability to carry the mission through to its very end,” he said.
