Germany is planning to buy Arrow of Israel-3 The missile defense system, worth about 4 billion euros ($4.30 billion), will ask lawmakers to release an advance payment of up to 560 million euros next week, according to documents seen by Reuters on Friday.
Arrow-3 is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside Earth’s atmosphere.
It is the top layer of Israel’s missile defense array, extending from the Iron Dome that intercepts short-range rockets to the Arrow-3 long-range missiles that destroy any non-conventional warheads at a safe altitude. .
Finance Ministry procurement documents prepared for parliament said Berlin aims to conclude a government-to-government agreement with Israel on the purchase of the Arrow-3 system at the end of the year.
According to the papers, Germany would lose part or all of its advance payment if the deal failed, as the money would be used to compensate Israel for costs incurred until then.
The German Air Force is to take delivery of the Arrow-3, which will cost about one billion euros more than originally planned, by the fourth quarter of 2025.
lack of ground-based air defense systems
Russia’s war in Ukraine Many Western countries lack ground-based air defense systems such as Raytheon’s RTX.N Patriot units or the more recently developed IRIS-T.
While the Patriot and IRIS-T cover the middle layer of air defence, the Arrow-3 – manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) – provides protection for the higher layer.