Israel on Wednesday formally delivered its Arrow-3 long-range missile defence system to the German Air Force, completing a €4 billion ($4.6 billion) deal, the largest defence export agreement in Israel’s history.
According to a Times of Israel report, the handover ceremony, held at Holzdorf Air Base in eastern Germany, marked the first operational deployment of Arrow-3 outside Israel and the United States, and the first time the system will be run independently by a foreign military.
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The system was deployed at the Holzdorf Air Base in eastern Germany, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Berlin, with additional sites to follow.
Representing Israel at the ceremony were Defence Ministry Director General Amir Baram, Directorate of Defence Research & Development chief Danny Gold, Israel Aerospace Industries CEO Boaz Levy, Missile Defence Organization Director Moshe Patel, and other senior officials.
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German media reported that Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Chancellor Friedrich Merz did not attend, though other German military and defence officials were present.
“As a second-generation Holocaust survivor, I stand here deeply moved because a ballistic missile defence system, developed by the finest Jewish minds in Israel’s aerospace industry, out of our existential necessity, will now help defend Germany,” Baram said at the ceremony, according to a statement from the defence ministry.
“We Israelis, descendants of Holocaust survivors, want to see Germany strong and prosperous, proud and leading in Europe and throughout the world. We deeply appreciate that Israeli systems are part of Germany’s renewed force build-up. Today’s handover marks only the beginning for Israel and Germany. Our cooperation will strengthen and deepen — whether in the air, on land, or in space,” he added.
Baram said he commended Germany’s decision to lift an arms embargo on Israel.
“Such an embargo should never have been imposed against Germany’s ally that is fighting murderous Islamist terrorism, whether it comes from Iran’s theocratic regime or from Hamas in Gaza. When Israel acts against nuclear threats, ballistic missiles, and terrorism, we are not only defending ourselves, we are protecting the entire Western world. We are doing the hard work, sometimes the ‘dirty work,’ that the entire world should be doing,” he added.
Also speaking at the ceremony, Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, noted that this year marked 60 years of diplomatic relations between the countries.
“Our partnership is strategic, and Germany is Israel’s most important ally in Europe. Today, we mark another milestone in this relationship. Who could have imagined that only 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the Jewish state, through the technologies it develops, would help defend not only Germany but all of Europe. My family, who fled Germany on the eve of the Holocaust, could never have foreseen this,” Prosor said.
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Boosting European defences with Arrow 3
The Arrow 3 is designed to take out ballistic missiles while they are still outside of the atmosphere.
Israel says the system has successfully shot down hundreds of ballistic missiles fired by Iran