Germany has made a “preliminary decision” to buy Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system, reports Bloomberg, citing sources close to the Bundestag.
According to the financial news agency, the agreement was mentioned today in Berlin at the meeting between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Bloomberg adds that Germany chose Israel’s defense system as an alternative to USbased Lockheed Martin’s THAAD.
The measure is justified by Germany’s decision to strengthen its defense against possible air attacks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Measures to be reinforced with a budget of 100 billion euros to modernize the armed forces.
“We are very interested in working with Israel, which has a very effective product like the Arrow 3 system in the field of air defense,” Scholz said at a joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart.
“Israel will play a role in building the new German defense forces,” affirms Yair Lapid, “mainly in the area of air defense.” Lapid stresses that democracies must be “willing and able” to defend themselves. “Sometimes freedom must be defended with violence,” adds the Israeli leader.
According to Bloomberg, the agreement to buy the Arrow 3 defense system could cost 2 billion euros. Scholz defended that the defense system would be “built” in the NATO and European context, involving countries that join the project and want to guarantee “a jointly developed European air defense system”.
Arrow 3 is currently Israel’s most advanced longrange missile defense system. The system is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles that are still outside the Earth’s atmosphere and eliminating projectiles and their nuclear, biological, chemical or conventional warheads closer to their launch sites.
It was developed in a joint project with the Israel Defense Ministry’s Missile Defense Organization and the US Missile Defense Agency.