JERUSALEM — Israel and Germany have started preparations to deliver the the Arrow-3 missile shield to German forces in the coming months, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced.
According to an agency statement, officials held “a high-level coordination meeting” in Germany recently that involved Moshe Patel, chief of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, Col. Carsten Koepper, Head of the Arrow 3 Program for Germany, and Yaakov Galifat, a general manager at manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries.
Representatives from Israeli companies ELTA and Elbit Systems along with German tech consultancy IABG and missile maker MBDA also attended, the statement added.
The Arrow-3 sale to Germany constitutes the largest defense deal in Israel’s history, amounting to $3.5 billion. The deal was approved by the U.S. government, as a co-developer, in August 2023 and received its final approval at the end of November of that year.
The German acquisition came against the backdrop of Russia’s war against Ukraine, leading German defense planners to harden the country’s defenses in the event of a Russian attack Europe. The first delivery milestone of the Arrow-3 defense systems to the German army was set for the end of 2025.
The Arrow-3 system carried out its first operational intercept on Nov. 9, 2023, against a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi rebel group from Yemen.
The system’s ability to handle multiple missiles was recorded on April 14, 2024, during the Iranian attack on Israel, during which the weapon intercepted dozens of Iranian ballistic missiles, according to the Israeli government.
The Arrow 3 is an exo-atmospheric defense system designed to intercept ballistic missiles in space. The system’s operating principle is based on a direct physical hit on the target and its destruction by kinetic force.
This is in contrast to the Arrow 2 system, whose warhead carries a proximity fuze that destroys the target missile using a charge of explosive. Arrow-3 is also faster and smaller than the Arrow-2, weighing nearly half.
Tzally Greenberg is the Israel correspondent for Defense News. He has experience reporting on economic affairs as well as defense and cyber companies.
