Israel tests nuclear capable submarine in Suez naval drill

Occupied Jerusalem: An Israeli submarine sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea as part of a naval drill last month, defence sources said yesterday, describing the unusual manoeuvre as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.

Israel long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbour masters.

It was unclear when last month the vessel left the Mediterranean. One source said the trip was planned for months and so was not related to unrest after the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom the Israelis see as a pursuit of nuclear weapons to threaten them.

Sailing to the Gulf without using Suez would oblige the diesel-fuelled Israeli submarines to circumnavigate Africa - a weeks-long voyage. That would have limited use in signalling Israel's readiness to retaliate should it ever come under an Iranian nuclear attack. Shorter-term, the submarines' conventional missiles could also be deployed in any Israeli strikes on Iran's atomic sites.

A defence source said the Israeli navy held an exercise off Eilat last month and that a Dolphin took part, having travelled to the Red Sea port though Suez. Israel has a naval base at Eilat, a 10-km strip of coast between Egypt and Jordan, but officials say it has no submarine dock there.

"This was definitely a departure from policy," said the source, who declined to give further details on the drill or say whether the Dolphin had undergone Egyptian inspections in the canal, through which the submarine sailed unsubmerged.