The Defense Ministry will purchase four German navy patrol boats at a cost of 430 million euros (1.85 billion shekels; $480 million), it announced Monday, with the aim of increasing naval protection and for securing its new gas fields.
The German government will contribute 115 million euros ($128 million) toward the cost of the transaction; the German shipyard has also committed to a reciprocal deal with Israel valuing more than 700 million shekel.
The Defense Ministry statement says that Israel “will acquire advanced patrol boats” from the city of Kiel, near Hamburg, which also builds the six Israeli Dolphin submarines Germany has been delivering to Israel as part of a deal struck several years ago. The fifth was delivered last month; the sixth is due to arrive in 2017.
“The ships will be delivered over the next five years,” it added. “The Ministry of Defense insisted that each ship’s combat systems will be made in Israel, to ensure the flow of new orders on a significant scale to Israeli defense industries.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen signed the deal together on Monday morning; von der Leyen is currently in Israel on an official state visit.
