More "Israeli Subs In Indian Ocean" Idiocy

Once again, we see people with no perception of maritime distances spouting off a bunch of ridiculous crap. In this case, it's World Net Daily, which yesterday posted a long "analysis" of how Israel is going to get their three Dolphin-class submarines to the Iranian coast -- if fact, it says that they "usually patrol" in the Indian Ocean. While this article at least recognizes that they won't get able to transit the Suez Canal, the article claims that the Israeli subs will be able to refuel in Eritrea, which is just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia. (As everyone knows, the HOA is a hotbed of pro-Israel sentiment.) {/sarcasm}

Diesel subs have a range of about 12,ooo miles -- one way. (The Dolphins have an advertised range of 8,000nm at 8 knots, but the article says that the Israeli's are having the fuel tanks "enlarged" -- as if there's just plenty of room on a diesel boat to add a lot of additional fuel capacity.) It's about 12,000 miles from Israel to Iran when circumnavigating Africa. Even assuming the Israel thinks they can refuel in Eritrea, they'd be idiots to send a sub there -- if permission to refuel gets denied, and they're stuck sailing up to Eilat with their tails between their legs -- and with the port of Eilat visible from Jordan, they'd kind of lose any element of surprise. Plus, with a diesel boat doing about 12 kts sustained, it would take 40 days to get to Iran, and another 40 days to get back -- not very efficient when you have only three boats, which would probably have a 45 day max on-station time. (At 8 knots, it's 120 days total transit time.)

Bottom line -- no matter how many idiots you see writing that Israeli subs are getting ready to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities, you can bet the farm that they're blowing smoke out their ass.