Amid its own war, Israel sending Arrow 3 air defenses to Germany in 2025

JERUSALEM — Even as it relies on its own air defenses to fend off rockets, missiles and drones from enemies in the region — and anticipates a potential new attack from Iran — Israel said it’s preparing to send one of its key air defense systems to Germany, as previously agreed.

Last week Israeli and German government and industry officials met for two days at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), maker of the Arrow 3 high-altitude defense system, where they began coordinating “joint preparations for the initial deployment of [Arrow 3] on German soil in 2025,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Nov. 10.

Arrow 3, originally developed as a joint project between Israel and the US, is the top layer of Israel’s three-layered air defense system and designed to primarily guard against ballistic missiles, while David’s Sling operates in the middle layer and Iron Dome sits at the bottom, taking out short-range, low flying threats. Though IAI is the Arrow’s prime contractor, the Israeli MoD said Israel’s Elbit Systems and Germany’s MBDA Deutschland GmbH also took part in the meeting last week.

That Israel would continue with the export of an advanced air defense system while using the same system to defend itself is evidence of Jerusalem’s commitment to its relationship with Berlin, according to Jeremy Issacharoff, former Israeli ambassador to Germany.

The progress on the Arrow deal is a “significant development and progression in the strategic partnership between the two countries,” Issacharoff told Breaking Defense.

Prior to the Arrow deal, many of the largest deals between Germany and Israel involved Israel acquiring defense products from Germany, not the other way around, he said. For instance, Israel has purchased submarines and corvette ships to be built by German firms. This has changed in recent years, however.

“Germany’s national security mindset changed when Russia precipitated the crisis with Ukraine, creating a necessity to contend with a dramatically different security environment impacting Germany and Europe as a whole,” said the former ambassador, who left his post in May 2022 just weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “When we saw what was happening with Ukraine … we passed on a clear message that we remain committed to German national security and would be willing to help in any way we could in providing defensive weapon systems needed in this new environment.”

Yaakov Katz, author of the book Shadow Strike and a Fellow at JPPI, agreed that there is a worldwide focus on the need for more missile defense systems.

“Europe is concerned with Russian aggression and threats that they could face on the horizon. Every country today, especially after the last year here in Israel, with Iran’s different attacks by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, recognize the need to bolster missile defense systems,” he said.

German and Israeli officials originally signed a letter of commitment to the deal for the Arrow 3 on Sept. 26, 2023, for $3.5 billion, just days before Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that drastically changed the security landscape of the Middle East. It sparked a deadly, devastating counterattack by Israel that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Gaza as well as continuous mortar, rocket, drone and missile attacks against Israel from groups like Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and, in two extraordinary cases, directly from Iran.

Arrow 3 had its first successful war-time interception on Nov. 9, 2023, taking down a missile launched from Yemen.

All the while the German deal was still in motion, and two weeks after the November interception, it was finalized with an estimated late 2025 delivery. Ever since, Israel has pledged to make the delivery on time, as IAI’s CEO Boaz Levy told Breaking Defense in March 2024.

The Arrow deal is one of several Israeli deals in Europe for air defense systems, and part of a rapidly growing interest in these systems that have proven themselves throughout a year of war as Israel faces multi-front threats.

Finland is acquiring the David’s Sling system, a medium-range interceptor. Slovakia is acquiring IAI’s Barak MX system. The US Marines recently completed a successful live-fire Iron Dome drill. On Nov. 14 reports indicated Greece is also interested in developing an air defense system similar to the multi-layered Israeli system that is anchored in Iron Dome.

As for Germany, Issacharoff said, “The close bilateral relationship between the defense and intelligence establishments of the two countries [Israel and Germany] has been very strong and will in my opinion remain strong. This is exemplified by the agreement for Israel to supply the Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany.”