The Sub that Vanished

This article discusses how sonar and an undersea rover helped Israel discover the vanished INS Dakar, an Israeli submarine that was purchased from the British Royal Navy. In February 1999, the Israelis invited bids on a contract, which was won by Nauticos, and the operation got started again shortly thereafter. The idea was to continue to search the “box,” the area of ocean where the committee had concluded the sub was most likely to be found. This would require a search of the area with deep-towed sonar, with likely spots more closely investigated by a camera-carrying robot craft. Navigation support came from the US Navy’s Deep Submergence Unit. The Oceanographer of the Navy, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, and the Naval Oceanographic Office also provided help under a cooperative research agreement. The sonar sweep turned up some 200 contacts to be investigated; several of these met enough of the search criteria that they were investigated with the Remora. Word was sent to Israel and a positive identification was done on Friday, May 28, 1999, and the relatives of the Dakar’s crew were notified privately.