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Germany wants to buy Israel’s advanced Arrow-3 missile system. Photos/The Drive
BERLIN – German plans to buy Israel’s advanced Arrow-3 missile defense system for around 4 billion euros (more than Rp 64 trillion).
According to documents cited by Reuters on Saturday (10/6/2023), the government will ask Parliament to release an advance payment of up to 560 million euros next week.
The Arrow-3 system is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside Earth’s atmosphere.
The system is the top layer of Israel’s missile defense array, which extends from the Iron Dome which intercepts short-range rockets to the Arrow-3 which destroys unconventional warhead targets at safe altitudes.
According to the Finance Ministry’s procurement documents prepared for Parliament, Berlin aims to reach an intergovernmental agreement with Israel on the purchase of the Arrow-3 system by the end of the year.
Germany would lose some or all of the upfront payment if the deal fell through, as the money would be used to compensate Israel for the costs incurred then.
The German Air Force is supposed to take delivery of the Arrow-3, which will cost around 1 billion euros more than originally planned, in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has shown a shortage of ground-based air defense systems such as the Patriot Raytheon (RTX.N) or newly developed IRIS-T units in many Western countries.
While the Patriot and IRIS-T cover an intermediate layer of air defense, the Arrow-3–manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)-offers protection for a higher layer.
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