The Dolphin class (Hebrew: הצוללות מסדרת דולפין) is a diesel-electric submarine developed in Israel and constructed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) in Kiel, Germany, for the Israeli Navy. The first boats of the class were based on the export-only German 209-class submarines, but modified and enlarged. The Dolphin 1 sub-class is slightly larger than the German Navy Type 212 in length and displacement. The three newer air-independent propulsion (AIP) equipped boats are similar to the Type 212 vessels in underwater endurance, but are longer, nearly 500 tonnes heavier in submerged displacement and have a larger crew than either the Type 212 or the Type 214. The Dolphin 2 class are the largest submarines to have been built in Germany since World War II. The Dolphin-class boats are the most expensive single vehicles in the Israel Defense Forces. The Dolphin class replaced the aging , which had served in the Israeli navy since the late 1970s. Each Dolphin-class submarine is capable of carrying a combined total of up to 16 torpedoes and Popeye Turbo submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs). The cruise missiles have a range of at least and are widely believed to be equipped with a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead containing up to of plutonium. The latter, if true, would provide Israel with an offshore nuclear second strike capability. The first batch of the class – the three Dolphin-I submarines – are set to be replaced by the newer Dakar-class submarines from 2031 onwards. History First budgeted in July 1989 and ordered in January 1990, by November the order for the submarines was cancelled. This was due to budget reallocation aimed at countering Iraqi threats made against Israel following the Iraqi invasion and annexation of neighboring Kuwait during the leadup to the 1991 Gulf War. Funding for the first two boats (Dolphin and Leviathan) was fully subsidized by the German government to restart the construction program and the third (Tekumah) received a 50% subsidy. During the first Gulf War, it was revealed that German firms had assisted Iraq with modernizing its ballistic missile and chemical weapon programs, thanks in part to lax enforcement by German customs, in violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime protocols which West Germany had acceded to in 1987. These enhanced missiles brought Israeli cities into Iraqi targeting range for the first time, and the Iraqi weapons research program included factories and necessary supplies for the creation