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Monday, September 12, 2022
Germany to buy Israel’s Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system — report
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Germany has made a preliminary decision to buy Israel’s Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the decision.
The deal was alluded to by both German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who met today in Berlin.
The report says Germany chose the Israeli system over the US Lockheed Martin’s THAAD system.
The move is spurred by Germany’s decision to boost its defenses in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and will be bolstered by a 100 billion euro fund to modernize its forces.
“We are very keen to work with Israel on that, including in the area of air defense where Israel has a very effective product with the Arrow 3 system,” Scholz says.
“Israel will play a role in building Germany’s new defense force,” says Lapid, “mainly in the field of air defense.”
Lapid stresses that democracies must be “willing and able” to defend themselves. “Sometimes, freedom must be defended with force,” he adds.
German media says the deal for the Arrow 3 would cost some 2 billion euros.
The Arrow 3 is currently Israel’s most advanced long-range missile defense system, meant to intercept ballistic missiles while they are still outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, taking out projectiles and their nuclear, biological, chemical or conventional warheads closer to their launch sites. It was developed in a joint project between the Defense Ministry’s Missile Defense Organization and the American Missile Defense Agency.
The Times of Israel Community.