Why is Germany going to spend €4 billion for nothing on the Israeli Arrow 3 anti-missile system?

In March 2022, the German site Bild revealed that the country's authorities were interested in the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system from the Israeli IAI, as part of the rapid strengthening of defensive capabilities enabled by the Zeitenwende, an exceptional envelope of 100 € billion dedicated to strengthening the Bundeswehr announced on February 27, 2022, 4 days after the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine.

A few months later, at the end of August, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz presented, during the speech given in Prague, the European Skyshield initiative , bringing together 14 European nations, and aimed at creating an anti- common air and anti-missile based on 3 weapon systems: the German Iris-T SLM, the American Patriot PAC-3 and the Israeli Arrow 3.

Negotiations with the Israeli IAI , but also the American Boeing which contributed significantly to the design of the Arrow 3, have been carried out vigorously since, with Berlin having revealed in mid-June 2023 the next payment of an advance of €560 million out of the €4.3 billion that the acquisition of this system will cost, presented as the ultimate anti-missile shield capable of protecting Germany from the Russian threat, but also the members of European Skyshield.

The performances and capabilities of the Arrow 3 anti-missile system

Designed to respond to the threat of Iranian medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, the Israeli system is capable of intercepting ballistic trajectory vectors in the exo-atmospheric domain, i.e. above 100 km altitude.

A specialist to counter Iranian MRBM and IRBM missiles

Its capabilities are in fact perfectly suited to confront the Iranian Ghadr-110 medium-range MRBM (Medium Range Ballistic Missile) ballistic missiles with a range of 2000 km with an apogee of 150 km, as well as to contain, in the descending phase, the Shahab-5 intermediate-range IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) missiles with an announced range of 4,000 km with an apogee of 400 km.

However, Russia has no ballistic system of this type to date . Indeed, constrained like the United States by the INF treaty which prohibited the design and implementation of missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km, Russian forces currently only have systems located at these two ends.

But useless against Russian SRBM and ICBM missiles

These are on the one hand intercontinental ballistic missiles ICBM (inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) like the Yars or Sarmat, and SLBM missiles (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) launched from submarines like the Bulava, all having a range greater than 10,000 km and a trajectory impossible to contain by the Arrow 3, and on the other short-range SRBM (Short-Range ballistic Missile) Iskander M missiles and its airborne version Kinzhal.

The rest of this article is reserved for subscribers -

Classic subscriptions give access to all Flash articles, Analyzes and Syntheses, without advertising , from €1.99.

Premium subscriptions also provide access to articles over two years old in the archive, as well as advanced research tools , and to publish two press releases or job offers per month for free in the Partners section ( + Push social networks / application).