The German government, in lieu of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to invest massively in defense, is considering the acquisition of an Israeli anti-missile protection system, the daily Bild said on Sunday, March 27.
The decision has not yet been taken formally but the Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the main formation of the ruling coalition, is in favor, specifies the most widely read daily in Germany. “We need to better protect ourselves against the Russian threat. For that, we need a missile shield on the scale of Germany quickly”, explains Bild the rapporteur for the Bundestag for the defense budget, Andreas Schwarz. “The Israeli Arrow 3 system is a good solution”, he adds about this Israeli anti-missile device intended to counter long-range missiles.
According to Bild, the system, inspired by the Israeli “Iron Dome”, would cost around 2 billion euros and could be operational as early as 2025 from three sites in Germany. The shield would even be powerful enough to also cover Poland, Romania, and the Baltic countries.
Iron Dome is a mobile all-weather air defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) to 70 kilometers (43 mi) away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area.