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Germany is going on with the purchase of the Israeli-made Arrow air-defense system for up to €4 billion and wants to purchase six IRIS-T SLM air-defense systems for an estimated total cost of roughly €950 million ($1 billion).
The lower house of parliament’s budget committee is expected to approve the purchases during a meeting on Wednesday in Berlin. The purchases will be paid for by a special €100 billion fund the government established to aid in the modernization of the military.
A letter of intent to join a German-led initiative to build a European anti-missile shield was signed by at least 15 nations, primarily from the NATO military alliance, in October. Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the initial announcement of the programme in a speech in Prague in August, saying that the nation will make considerable investments in its air defence because the continent still had “a lot of catching up to do.”
Additionally, Germany has given Ukraine two of the cutting-edge IRIS-T systems to aid in its defence against Russian assaults. Diehl Defence GmbH & Co. KG in Germany is the company that makes the system. Involved as subcontractors are Hensoldt Sensors GmbH, Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles GmbH, and Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Scholz’s ruling coalition broke with a long-standing German policy of not supplying weapons to conflict areas and has been one of the most generous providers of military hardware, along with financial and humanitarian aid, to the government in Kyiv.
Scholz also announced the establishment of the €100 billion fund to rebuild Germany’s armed forces after years of neglect, signalling a momentous policy change.
The government documents state that the Bundestag budget committee will vote on Wednesday to accept a preliminary agreement for Germany to purchase the Arrow system at an initial cost of up to €560 million.
2024 should see the delivery of the first IRIS-T system, followed by 2025 by the second. In 2026, three more units are expected to be delivered, and the last one will come in 2027.
