The German Air Pressure has obtained its first Arrow 3 missile defence methods from Israel, making it the primary overseas nation to deploy the anti-ballistic system. Collectively developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing, the Arrow 3 was designed to intermediate vary ballistic missiles in house, and has been extensively fight examined in opposition to three separate rounds of Iranian missile assaults. The €3.6 billion ($3.9 billion) deal to obtain the methods was signed in 2023, as Germany surged arms procurements following the outbreak of full scale battle between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022.Israel Aerospace Industries CEO Boaz Levy said that Germany “has expressed curiosity not solely in Arrow 3 but additionally within the upcoming Arrow 4 air defence system,” including that he anticipated “extra offers and nearer cooperation sooner or later.”
Whereas Germany’s army buildup is aimed primarily at Russia, the viability of the Arrow 3 to intercept Russian intermediate vary missile assaults is regarded as restricted. Russia initiated the manufacturing of its first post-Soviet intermediate vary ballistic missile kind, the Oreshnik, in the summertime of 2025. The missile is estimated to have a 4000 kilometre vary, and carries a number of independently re-targetable warheads with hypersonic reentry automobiles. The usage of hypersonic glide automobiles, which might manoeuvre and strategy targets from surprising instructions, severely limits the flexibility of conventional air defence methods just like the Arrow 3 to intercept them. Israeli officers have themselves attested to the inadequacy of the nation’s present air defences to intercept hypersonic missile assaults, stressing the necessity for a wholly new strategy primarily based round a ‘zone defence’ to answer this problem. These limitations have raised questions amongst analysts relating to the usefulness of the air defence system.
