By now, everyone has already caught wind of the Iranian government constructing the massive underground nuclear site in the city of Natanz, roughly 150 miles south of Tehran, as reported by ABC News.
With a rather fear-mongering headline, I’m of the opinion that American nukes shouldn’t be at the top of the mullahs worry list;
An Iranian nuclear facility is so deep underground that US airstrikes likely couldn’t reach it
Face it… the only ones the Teheran government hates more than the Americans are the Israelis. The Iranian Revolutionary
Even though Israel has never come out and publicly admitted it, it’s estimated that Jerusalem’s nuclear inventory is somewhere between 80 to as many as 120.
Back in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Gloda Mier authorized something called The Sampson Option when early in the war, the forces of Egypt and Syria came quite close to defeating Israel, as noted by GlobalSecurity.org.
Global Security notes that even in 1973, the USSR informed the Cairo government that the Israelis had at least three nuclear devices, as well as the means of delivery.
Half-a-century later, the Israelis have more than three nukes, and they certainly don’t rely on antiquated means of delivery like F-4 Phantoms or 175mm artillery batteries.
The decidedly leftie-leaning NTI.org (Nuclear Threat Initiative) cites the Israeli Navy’s submarine fleet as consisting of five German built Dolphin-class subs, two of which are advanced Dolphin II-class.
Please keep in mind that NTI also notes that the Israelis have purchased three brand spanking new Dakar-class subs from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, estimated to be active by 2027.
Get ready for this – the Dolphin and Dolphin II classes are all capable of deploying a weapons platform known as the Popeye Turbo which can be launched as SLCMs (Submarine Launched Cruise Missiles) or even initially fired as a torpedo, eventually taking to the air, as reported by FAS.org (Federation of American Scientists).
But what about the Dakar subs? Shrouded in secrecy, published by The War Zone of TheDrive.com;
Should the enlarged sail be intended to contain missiles, it would accommodate vertical launch system (VLS) cells. These could be used to launch additional cruise missiles, for extra overall capacity, while also freeing up the torpedo tubes for their primary weapons. New types of missiles might also be better accommodated by VLS cells, perhaps even including hypersonic weapons that would likely be too large for the torpedo tubes.
A mix of these updated weapons now, and possibly a ballistic missile later, is also a possibility.
Whatever weapons the Dakars might carry, it seems very likely that Israel is seeking a more robust second-strike capability in light of Iranian developments in particular and continuing fears that Tehran might suddenly decide to pursue a nuclear weapon.