Israeli Dolphin submarine<\/p>\n
When the government recently published its arms exports data<\/a> for the period July to September last year, one item caught the eye: a licence to sell Israel \u00a37.1m worth of \u201ctechnology for submarines\u201d.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s submarines are believed to house nuclear arms.<\/p>\n The government data included a footnote stating that the licence related to \u201cmarketing and promotional purposes, including demonstration to potential customers, temporary exhibitions\u201d.<\/p>\n Whatever that might mean, what is clearer is that British ministers have authorised 77 export licences to supply Israel with components for its submarines since 2010. This makes that category of equipment the fourth most numerous for all UK military exports to Israel.<\/p>\n The total value of these licences is \u00a38.96m, Declassified<\/em> has established. Two of the licences are, however, \u201copen\u201d rather than \u201csingle\u201d, meaning that unlimited quantities and values of such equipment can be exported from Britain.<\/p>\n These licences for Israel\u2019s submarines were excluded<\/a> from the UK\u2019s restrictions on exports of military equipment for Israel announced last September during its bombardment of Gaza.<\/p>\n Also excluded were components from Israel\u2019s F-35<\/a> warplanes used to devastating effect in the territory.<\/p>\n Israeli military officials are doubtless pleased that British companies can continue to support their submarines \u2013 since their underwater and nuclear arms programmes are both being upgraded.<\/p>\n Research institute SIPRI estimates<\/a> that Israel has at least 90 nuclear warheads but that the number could reach as high as 300.<\/p>\n While Israel continues to deny it has nuclear arms, SIPRI says it is \u201cbelieved to be modernizing its nuclear arsenal and appears to be upgrading its plutonium production reactor site at Dimona\u201d in the Negev desert.<\/p>\n The Stockholm-based institute also notes unconfirmed reports that \u201call or some of the submarines have been equipped to launch an indigenously produced nuclear-armed sea-launched variant of the Popeye cruise missile, giving Israel a sea-based nuclear strike capability\u201d.<\/p>\n It \u201cassesses that around 10 cruise missile warheads might be available for the submarine fleet\u201d.<\/p>\n Based in Haifa on the Mediterranean coast, Israel\u2019s navy, which has for years enforced the illegal blockade of Gaza, now operates six \u2018Dolphin class\u2019 submarines built in Germany. In 2022, Israel signed a further agreement with Berlin to procure three new, \u2018Dakar class\u2019, ships.<\/p>\n Various reports suggest that Israel\u2019s submarines have been refitted to carry missiles armed with nuclear weapons. German magazine Der Spiegel<\/em> reported<\/a> in 2012 that \u201cexperts in Germany and Israel have confirmed that nuclear-tipped missiles have been deployed on the vessels\u201d.<\/p>\n Its extensive investigation noted that Israeli arms firm Rafael \u201cbuilt the missiles for the nuclear weapons option\u201d and that such cruise missiles have a range of around 1,500 miles and can reach Iran with a warhead weighing up to 200 kilogrammes.<\/p>\n The magazine quoted Hans R\u00fchle, the head of the planning staff at the German Defence Ministry in the late 1980s, saying: \u201cI assumed from the very beginning that the submarines were supposed to be nuclear-capable\u201d.<\/p>\n Lothar R\u00fchl, meanwhile, a former state secretary in the Defence Ministry, said that he never doubted that \u201cIsrael stationed nuclear weapons on the ships.\u201d<\/p>\n Sophie Bolt, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, told Declassified<\/em>: \u201cIt is utterly chilling that, all the time the British government has been giving military assistance to Israel\u2019s genocide against the Palestinian people, it has also been in effect helping Israel upgrade its deadly nuclear weapons force.<\/p>\n \u201cBritain has to end its reckless complicity with Israel, which breaches international law and \u2013 given Israel\u2019s expansionist plans \u2013 endangers the lives of all those across the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s most recent, and sixth, submarine, known as the INS Drakon, is the country\u2019s largest and was unveiled last November at the Kiel shipyard in northern Germany where it was built, and from where it will be delivered to Israel later this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIsraeli nuclear submarines have the capability to be armed with nuclear weapons as well as to perform clandestine spying missions all over the world\u201d, the Jerusalem Post<\/em> reported<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n Israeli ministers may not see their nuclear weapons just as weapons of last resort, to be used if the country were threatened with annihilation.<\/p>\n In the months after the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023, several Israeli policymakers and commentators\u2014including heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu who was later suspended from the cabinet\u2014suggested that Israel should use nuclear arms against Hamas fighters in Gaza.<\/p>\n The UK government has consistently refused<\/a> to acknowledge the open secret that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. One reason Whitehall can be certain, however, is that it helped Israel acquire nuclear arms in the first place.<\/p>\n In the late 1950s, Britain sold<\/a> Israel 20 tonnes of heavy water, a vital ingredient for the production of plutonium at Israel\u2019s top secret Dimona nuclear site.<\/p>\n In fact, Declassified<\/em> previously found<\/a> that staff in the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence have for over 40 years believed Israel has developed nuclear arms.<\/p>\n Britain has also aided Israel\u2019s submarine development. Tel Aviv first acquired<\/a> two British S-class submarines in the late 1950s, which Israel used in its wars in Lebanon from 1967 to the 1980s.<\/p>\n In the 1970s, the Vickers shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness \u2013 where UK submarines are now built \u2013 constructed three Israeli \u2018Gal-class\u2019 submarines designed by Germany.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s air-launched nuclear weapons may be stored at Tel Nof air base in central Israel. When its air force sent six F-15 fighters from Tel Nof to Britain for an exercise in 2019, a US official referred<\/a> to this as Israel\u2019s \u201cnuclear squadron\u201d.<\/p>\n One irony of the UK in effect aiding Israel\u2019s submarine-based nuclear weapons programme is that London was a sponsor<\/a> of the landmark 1995 United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East.<\/p>\n UK government data is not so transparent as to list all the UK companies aiding Israel\u2019s submarine development. And it has not been revealed which company secured the unusually large \u00a37.1m licence last August.<\/p>\n Only five companies are mentioned as being awarded licences to Israel in the government data. These are Truflo Marine, Thompson Valves \u2013 both of which are part of IMI plc \u2013 Honeywell Control Systems, Tenmat and Hale Hamilton Valves.<\/p>\n Truflo and Thompson make valves for submarines. \u201cOur IMI Truflo Marine valves have the high flow capability and fast shut off that is crucial to all critical systems at sea\u201d, IMI says<\/a> on its website.<\/p>\n Another valve producer, Hale Hamilton, says<\/a> that \u201c95% of the Western World Submarine fleets have Hale Hamilton High Pressure Air and\/or Hydraulic Valves installed\u201d.<\/p>\n Tenmat, a small firm based in Manchester, produces fire protection systems and Honeywell Control Systems, part of the giant US Honeywell conglomerate, produces<\/a> electrical switches and sensors, among other things.<\/p>\n Its parent company Honeywell is part of the submarine design programme to build new vessels for Australia as part of the AUKUS alliance.<\/p>\n Declassified<\/em> emailed the companies about their exports to Israel but only received a response from Hale Hamilton, which said that it did not respond to media enquiries.<\/p>\n Other UK exporters which supply Israel with military equipment and which also produce technology for submarines include Elbit Systems, BAE Systems and Babcock.<\/p>\n The later two are part of a trio of major companies \u2013 which also includes Rolls Royce \u2013 which are building the UK\u2019s own new generation of nuclear-armed submarines.<\/p>\nNuclear dolphins<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Armed with nuclear weapons\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Whitehall in denial<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The companies<\/strong><\/h2>\n