Germany to buy Iron Dome air defense system from Israel

BERLIN — Germany has the green light to get its own Iron Dome.

The Bundestag’s budget committee released a first tranche of €560 million for the purchase of the Israel-made Arrow-3 air defense system on Wednesday as the German government looks to modernize its military under a €100 billion fund approved by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the German parliament last year.

Eventually, Germany’s expenditure on Arrow-3, which is designed to intercept ballistic missiles, is expected to reach €4 billion. The committee also approved around €950 million for the purchase of six German-made IRIS-T-SLM air defense systems on Wednesday.

“With the purchase of the German IRIS-T SLM and the acquisition of the Israeli Arrow, we are pushing ahead with two major projects from the Bundeswehr’s special assets that will help build up a protective umbrella in Germany,” Karsten Klein, a lawmaker for the Free Democrats in the committee, told POLITICO.

The Arrow-3 system is developed and manufactured by Israeli Aerospace Industries in cooperation with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing. Klein said that the air defense systems combined would provide a 2,400-kilometer range.

The Arrow-3 system has been in use in Israel since 2017 as part of its Iron Dome protection network. Berlin is aiming for a binding contract for the Arrow-3 system by the end of 2023, according to a document seen by POLITICO, which then could be operational by the end of 2025.

As part of a splurge in defense spending across Europe following Russia’s war on Ukraine, aerospace firms fear that billions of euros will go to contractors outside the EU, including in Israel, South Korea and Turkey.