Israel’s $634M German-Built “Doomsday” Submarine Arrives — as a State Inquiry Into the Same Program Heads Toward Netanyahu.
- $634,000,000 the unit cost of INS Drakon, the largest submarine built in Germany since World War II — Fox News; Algemeiner; Globes, Aug. 2026
- 6th of 6 boats in Israel's Dolphin-class program, quietly handed over at TKMS's Kiel shipyard July 22-23, 2026 — Army Recognition; ynetnews
- $3,400,000,000 the 2022 contract for three more Dakar-class submarines, roughly 20% subsidized by the German government, first delivery expected 2031 — Globes; thyssenkrupp.com
- 5 officials sent warning letters by Israel's state Commission of Inquiry over the submarine program, including Prime Minister Netanyahu — personal-responsibility hearings run Nov. 1-Dec. 31, 2026 — Times of Israel
- 0 charges filed against Netanyahu in the separate criminal case; prosecutors declined to prosecute him in September 2024 after treating him as a witness — corruption-tracker.org
On July 22, 2026, the Israeli Navy took quiet custody of INS Drakon at ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems’ shipyard in Kiel, Germany — no ribbon, no press pool, just a private handover before the boat sailed under Israeli command for final acceptance work in Kiel Bay. Fox News Digital broke the cost and specs on August 9: $634,000,000, roughly 73–74 meters long with a submerged displacement near 2,400 tons and ten torpedo tubes, built with an extended hull that naval analysts believe carries a vertical-launch system. It is, by Fox’s reporting, the largest submarine built in Germany since World War II.
The delivery caps a Dolphin-class program that began in 1990 and now anchors Israel’s sea-based deterrent against a nuclear-ambitious Iran. It also lands in the middle of an unresolved Israeli state inquiry into the same TKMS relationship — one that found the underlying decision-making “endangered national security” and has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) facing personal-responsibility hearings this fall.
Two tracks, two different outcomes so far. A criminal bribery case tied to the broader submarine deal produced indictments, one plea deal, and no charges for Netanyahu. A separate, non-criminal Commission of Inquiry is still open, and its findings on Netanyahu personally have not yet been issued.
Construction on Drakon began in March 2012; it was relaunched in its modified, extended-hull configuration in August 2023 and formally named in a Kiel ceremony on November 12, 2024, attended by Israeli Navy Commander Rear Admiral David Saar Salama, who told those present the boat would “operate in distant and concealed areas for extended periods, seeing without being seen.” Sea trials ran from June 2024 through September 2025, watched the whole time by Russian intelligence-gathering vessels — a detail naval analyst H.I. Sutton flagged for Naval News as evidence of how closely Moscow, Tehran’s wartime supplier, tracks Israel’s undersea capability.
The July 2026 handover itself was deliberately low-key: TKMS chief executive Oliver Burkhard confirmed only that the program was “going according to plan for Israel.” Trade press in Israel — Algemeiner and Globes — broke the delivery news August 4 and 5; Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey followed with the cost figure and deterrence framing on August 9.
Israel has quietly received one of its most advanced submarines ever built — Germany has officially transferred the INS Drakon...
Israeli national-security analyst Dr. Ehud Eilam, a former researcher for Israel’s Ministry of Defense, told Fox News Digital the fleet’s purpose is blunt: a second-strike guarantee against a nuclear Iran. Multiple outlets, including ynetnews analyst Werner Sonne, describe the delivery itself as a message aimed squarely at Tehran — a reminder that Israel’s deterrent survives any single strike, launched from a platform Iran cannot easily locate or destroy.
“Israel has been acquiring submarines for several purposes. One of them is for deterrence and retribution, such as if Iran manages to develop nuclear weapons.”
Dr. Ehud Eilam, Israeli national security analyst, to Fox News Digital
That framing matters against the backdrop of the live Israel-Iran missile exchanges that have punctuated 2026. A submarine fleet capable of prolonged, undetected patrols gives Israel a survivable strike option regardless of what happens to its air bases — the kind of capability defense planners call “assured retaliation,” and the reason the program has drawn sustained interest from open-source naval trackers.
Israel's latest submarine, INS Drakon, will be on sea trials... Two Russian spy ships... have arrived on the scene
Drakon is the last of the current six-boat Dolphin-class order, but not the end of the relationship. In 2022, Israel signed a roughly $3,400,000,000 contract with TKMS for three additional Dakar-class submarines, with the German federal government subsidizing about 20 percent of the cost — an arrangement TKMS confirmed in its own newsroom release. The first Dakar-class boat is expected around 2031, with the remaining two following roughly every 18 months after.
Naval analyst Alex Luck has published imagery suggesting Drakon’s extended hull houses a vertical-launch system — an upgrade that, if confirmed, would let Israel fire land-attack or anti-ship missiles from underwater without surfacing. Neither TKMS nor the Israeli Navy has officially confirmed the VLS capability; it remains open-source analysis, not an official specification.
New shot of INS Drakon, the VLS-equipped newest Dolphin 2-variant boat for the Israeli Navy.
The submarine buy sits inside a much larger German-Israeli defense relationship — Israel Shipyards separately signed an $840,000,000 contract for Reshef-class assault ships in December 2024 — and that relationship is exactly what a state commission has spent the last three and a half years investigating.
Israeli police opened a corruption investigation into the TKMS submarine and corvette deals in November 2016 — what became known as “Case 3000.” In October 2021, prosecutors indicted seven individuals on bribery, money-laundering, fraud, and breach-of-trust charges, including TKMS’s Israeli sales agent Michael Ganor, alleged to have funneled roughly $11,400,000 in commissions toward Israeli decision-makers, with individual payments in the case ranging from $27,000 to $112,000.
Eliezer “Modi” Sandberg, who chaired the nonprofit Keren Hayesod from 2010 to 2018, accepted a plea deal in October 2022 and was sentenced to community service — the case’s one resolved conviction. Netanyahu was interviewed in June 2018, but only as a witness, never a suspect. In September 2024, Israeli prosecutors formally closed the door on charging him: no indictment, no case.
Case 3000 is not the only accountability track. In January 2023, Israel established a state Commission of Inquiry — an administrative body, not a criminal one — to examine how the submarine and corvette decisions were made, alongside Germany’s related sale of vessels to Egypt. The commission concluded that decision-making on both deals “endangered national security and harmed Israel’s foreign relations,” driven by undocumented, improperly channeled choices rather than normal defense-procurement process. It sent formal warning letters to five officials: Netanyahu; former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud at the time); former Mossad Director Yossi Cohen; former Navy Commander Ram Rothberg; and former National Security Council official Avner Simchoni.
Closed-door hearings on each official’s personal responsibility are scheduled for November 1 through December 31, 2026, according to the Times of Israel. Haaretz reported July 10 that Netanyahu is asking the commission not to issue personal findings against him at all — a request the commission has not yet ruled on. A related Haaretz report in January found the commission reached a similar conclusion about Israel’s approval of a separate German submarine sale to Egypt, arranged through the same TKMS relationship. None of this touches Drakon’s delivery itself, which proceeded on schedule and without incident. It does mean the fleet Israel is counting on to deter Iran was built inside a procurement relationship its own government says compromised national security.
INS Drakon, a $634,000,000 German-built submarine, quietly joined the Israeli Navy in July 2026 — the sixth and final boat of a Dolphin-class program meant to guarantee Israel a survivable deterrent against Iran. It arrives inside an unresolved accountability story: a criminal bribery case tied to the same TKMS relationship indicted seven people and produced one plea deal, but cleared Netanyahu of charges in 2024. A separate state Commission of Inquiry found the underlying decisions “endangered national security” and has personal-responsibility hearings for Netanyahu and four other officials scheduled this November and December.
