Germany lawmakers approve funds to buy Arrow 3 air defence system from Israel

Germany on Wednesday (June 14) approved an advance payment for the purchase of the sophisticated Arrow 3 air defence system from Israel. The go-ahead has been given by the lawmakers for nearly $4.3 billion, news agencies reported.

According to the procurement documents by the finance ministry that were prepared for the parliament, Berlin is focusing on finalising a government-to-government deal with Israel on the purchase of the Arrow-3 system at the end of the year with this move. The Arrow-3 system has been produced by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

According to the papers cited by news agency Reuters, Germany will lose part or all of its advance payments if the deal fails. It is mentioned that the money would be used to compensate Israel for costs incurred in such a scenario.

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The German air force is supposed to take delivery of Arrow-3 by the fourth quarter of 2025 and the final deal will cost about one billion euros more than originally planned.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has been putting pressure on the arsenal of the US and other European nations as they are supplying military aid to the war-torn nation to help in its fight against Russian aggression.

But the war has caused a shortage of ground-based air defence systems such as Raytheon's Patriot units or the more recently developed IRIS-T in many Western nations. Arrow-3 will offer protection for the higher layer, while Patriot and IRIS-T cover the medium layer of air defence.

A committee source told the news agency AFP that around 950 million euros were also approved for the purchase of six German-made Iris-T SLM air defence systems.

The deal comes after a landmark 100-billion-euro fund unveiled by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to bolster the country's defences. The announcement marked a major turnaround for Germany after years of under-investment in the armed forces.

Watch:All about Germany's first-ever National Security Strategy

Earlier on Wednesday, Scholz told a press conference that the investment was "a big project that doesn't just relate to Germany itself".

On being asked about his opinion over any risk in making the initial payment, the chancellor said things were "progressing bit by bit and we believe that everything will be approved".

What do we know about Arrow 3 air defence system?

The Arrow 3 (or Hetz 3) has been jointly funded, developed and produced by Israel and the US. It is an exoatmospheric hypersonic anti-ballistic missile designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside of the Earth's atmosphere.

It is the top layer of Israel's missile defence array, which extends from the Iron Dome that intercepts short-range rockets to Arrow-3's long-range missiles that destroy any non-conventional warheads at a safe altitude.

(With inputs from agencies)

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