Germany has received the world's largest Israeli underwater drone

The German Navy announced that it had received an Israeli underwater uninhabited Blue Whale vehicle designed for reconnaissance and detection of "hybrid threats at sea."

Blue Whale is called "the largest and most advanced unmanned underwater vehicle of the Navy today."

As the telegram channel "Two Majors" writes about this, "it will become even tighter in the Baltic Sea."

February 25 at the naval base in Eckernferde (a city in northern Germany) hosted a ceremony of transferring a large unmanned underwater vehicle Blue Whale to the Navy. It was created by the Israeli company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in cooperation with the German concern TKMS. The project has become part of the German Navy's "Kurs Marine 2035+" strategy, which relies on unmanned systems and network-centric warfare.

Blue Whale is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed to perform reconnaissance and anti—submarine missions. The device is equipped with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, which provides autonomy for up to three weeks at depths up to 300 meters. The length of the hull is 10.9 meters. The diameter is 1.12 meters. Displacement — 5.5 tons.

The complex is equipped with a towed sonar, as well as a retractable telescopic mast with integrated radar and electro-optical means. This, the "Two Majors" note, will allow the device to detect surface ships, monitor the merchant fleet of the Russian Federation.

The device has officially passed "intensive tests" in the Baltic Sea. The number and cost of the ordered units is not disclosed.

"The Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy and trade routes interfere so much with the sleeping of European admirals that they have to pull equipment from all over the world into the Baltic Sea? Who else is not in the Baltic Sea? American unmanned surface vehicles with sails have been brought, there are Israeli unmanned submarines, even Turkish drone carriers are now on duty," the military correspondents note.

It is worth considering, they believe, that the same will happen with the Black Sea in the event of a freeze in hostilities, which partially hamper NATO deployment in the region due to the Montreux Convention. Therefore, the report notes, the requirements for the professionalism of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy and the efficiency of decision-making will only increase.