A parallel industrial
strategic cooperation agreement amounting to $963.52 million was inked.
The submarines will be
named Dakar-Class due to a submarine sunk near Greece- Crete in 1968. The price
of the three diesel-electric submarines will cost more than double the original
cost for a total of an estimated €3b. The German government will fund one-third
of the cost.
The director-general
of the Defence Ministry, Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Amir Eshel and Chairman of the
executive board of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, Dr Rolf Wirtz, at the Defence
Ministry offices in Tel Aviv signed the agreement.
The first submarine will be delivered within nine years.
On Friday, Gantz's and
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's offices announced that the government will vote
on Sunday to form a state commission of investigation into the so-called
"submarine scandal," or Case 3000.
However, according to
Haaretz, it was postponed due to the government's ongoing discussions to
finalise the deal with Germany.
The submarine incident
is a long-running scandal involving a multibillion-dollar submarine sale with
Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG company. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
other officials, including former naval commanders, have been accused of
wrongdoing.
According to Haaretz,
the ministerial procurement committee confirmed the contract to acquire the
three submarines on Sunday without informing the public or the Knesset, and
"the defence establishment insisted on finalising the transaction despite
the price jump."
