Work on Israeli-made missile defence system starts in Germany

Construction work has started on an Israeli-made Arrow 3 missile defence system at an airbase to the south of Berlin, a spokesman for the German military's procurement agency reported on Thursday.

The intention is to set up so-called "initial capability" during 2025, the spokesman said. "Full operational readiness of the entire system will be achieved provisionally in 2030," he added.

The first of a planned three bases for the fire control units will be at the Holzdorf airbase on the border between the states of Brandenburg and Saxony Anhalt, some 75 kilometres south of the German capital.

The Arrow 3 systems being bought from Israel are intended to close a gap in Germany's air defences.

Arrow 3 is able to destroy incoming missiles at heights of more than 100 kilometres, outside the atmosphere and at the fringe of space, with the aim of rendering hostile missiles largely harmless. Germany has not had this capability.

The country's other air defences were partially dismantled after the end of the Cold War and are now being reinforced.

To this end, Germany has backed a European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI ) in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The work at Holzdorf is to be completed by 2028, the agency spokesman said.

With reference to the other two locations, he said that basic documentation for the bases identified in the north of the country was currently being drawn up with a view to starting construction planning in the next phase.

No bases had as yet been identified in the south, he said.