Oleg7700 has been very helpful
shedding light on INS Drakon a (likely) VLS test bed. Drakon will
likely simultaneously serve Israel’s Nuclear Triad with its nuclear
tipped Popeye Turbo missiles. I think the Popeyes will continue to be launched
from Drakon’s 4 x 650mm horizontal torpedo tubes.
On August 23, 2023 Oleg7700 provided
a comment. In a P.S. to Oleg7700’s August 23,
2023 comment Oleg brought to my
attention that on "08/23/2023" one Ami Rokhax Dumba at IsraelDefense (in Hebrew when translate into English) draws heavily on my articleincluding my guesswork that “The purpose of [Drakon's] fin/sail may only be for streamlining/quiet,
or to accommodate more masts/sensors or perhaps to house between 2 and 4
vertically launched missiles..."
Rather than my estimate of 2 to 4 vertically
launched missiles H I Sutton estimates 2 to 8. Possible! TKMS please advise the true number :)
Possibly INS Dakar has an enlarged
AIP and battery capacity to permit it to sit longer on the seafloor, secret
and silent, in the eastern Mediterranean, off Israel’s Haifa Submarine Base. This is for Drakon to be ready to rise closer to the surface to torpedo tube
launch its Popeye Turbo missiles (within range of future nuclear
armed Iran and Saudi Arabia) and vertically launch missiles with sufficient
range to hit Pakistan (already keeper of the "Islamic Bomb”). Pakistan reputedly has a nuclear warhead sharing arrangement with its nuclear program creditor, Saudi Arabia.
On reader comments here.
SSKs and SSBs have grown in size to boost their capabilities eg. longer medium range-at-speed, longer seafloor sitting time, greater crew comfort/endurance and particulary more heavyweight torpedoes and missiles.
I think it is generally misleading to write size is ultimately an attempt to imitate nuclear submarines. SSNs unlike SSKs, serve their highest requirement, which is surveillance/shadowing opposing SSBNs and SSNs in peacettime and then destroying these opposing SSBNs and SSNs immediately before a nuclear war.
There is no "sudden spike" to >3000 tons. Australia's Collins-class SSKs have weighed 3,100 tonnes (surfaced) since 1993. Japan’s 12 Soryu SSKs have weighed 4,200 tonnes (submerged) since 2007.
Might this photo of INS Drakon above, at TKMS Kiel, imply Drakon is so “fat” that it might contain 3 continuously inhabited decks rather than the usual 2 in Type 214s? Is the differing angle, at Kiel, of Drakon, in the photo below, sufficient to explain the difference in "fatness"? Or has one or both been "touched up" or distorted due to Israeli security concerns?
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