{"id":607540,"date":"2025-12-02T14:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/607540\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T14:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:20:15","slug":"germany-to-activate-arrow-3-missile-shield-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/607540\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany to activate Arrow 3 missile shield this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

NUREMBERG, Germany \u2014 Germany\u2019s first long-range missile shield will enter service in an initial configuration on Wednesday, based roughly 40 miles south of the capital, Berlin, German media reported today.<\/p>\n

The declaration of initial operational capability is expected to draw top defense officials to the interceptor host airbase of Fliegerhorst Holzdorf\/Sch\u00f6newalde, which straddles the states of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, on Dec. 3, newspaper Tagesspiegel reported on its website.<\/p>\n

A German Air Force spokesperson declined to confirm the pending deployment when asked by Defense News, citing a policy of not commenting on future events.<\/p>\n

The government in 2023 decided to buy a total of three batteries of the Israeli-American Arrow 3 system<\/a> as one of the most significant defense procurements following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and Berlin\u2019s subsequent rearmament. Every battery contains four launchers, which are each in turn loaded with six fire-ready missiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The total contract is worth around $4 billion.<\/p>\n

The first battery will be deployed in line with the accelerated schedule outlined at the time of procurement, executives at manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries have said.<\/p>\n

In its envisioned final setup, the missile shield will consist of additional batteries in the very north of the country, in Schleswig-Holstein, and one in Bavaria, covering the south of Germany, by the end of the decade, the news service RND reported shortly after the 2023 deal.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s envisioned activation marks the first deployment of Arrow 3 outside of Israel. It also allows Germany to further stake its claim as the champion for Western Europe\u2019s air defense, after launching the European Sky Shield Initiative \u2212 a joint procurement and interoperability push for air defenses \u2212 in 2022. ESSI now counts 24 member states stretching from the Arctic Ocean to the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arrow 3\u2019s interceptor missiles reportedly have a flight range of 2,400 kilometers and an operating ceiling of 100 km. They intercept incoming ballistic missiles during their travel time through space<\/a>, a capability proven effective on several occasions in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

For example, an Israeli Arrow 3 intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen on Nov. 9, 2023, marking the first wartime use of the system. It has also shot down Iranian ballistic missiles, according Israeli officials.<\/p>\n

Its predecessor, Arrow 2, was used in the first exoatmospheric combat engagement in history.<\/p>\n

Linus H\u00f6ller is Defense News’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds a master\u2019s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NUREMBERG, Germany \u2014 Germany\u2019s first long-range missile shield will enter service in an initial configuration on Wednesday, based…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[71264,5606,5607,5602,2000,299,1824,71266,837,190153,2821],"class_list":{"0":"post-607540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-arrow-3","9":"tag-circulated-defense-news","10":"tag-defense-news","11":"tag-dn-dnr","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-iai","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-long-range-missile-shield","18":"tag-nato"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115650417329887045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}