"Capacities that were not there before" - work begins in Germany on Israeli-made missile defense system

Construction work has begun for an Israeli-made Arrow 3 missile defense system at an air base south of Berlin, a spokesman for the German military's procurement agency announced on Thursday.

The aim is to create the so-called "initial capability" by 2025, the spokesman said, they write. foreign media, the Telegraph reports.

"Full operational readiness of the entire system will be achieved provisionally in 2030," he added.

The first of three planned bases for fire control units will be at Holzdorf air base on the border between the states of Brandenburg and Saxony Anhalt, about 75 kilometers south of the German capital.

The Arrow 3 systems being purchased from Israel are intended to close a gap in Germany's air defense.

It is known that the Arrow 3 is capable of destroying missiles that arrive at altitudes above 100 kilometers, outside the atmosphere and "at the edge of space", with the aim of "rendering hostile missiles largely harmless".

Germany did not have this capacity.

The country's other air defense systems were partially dismantled after the end of the Cold War and are now being reinforced.

To this end, Germany has supported a European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Work in Holzdorf will be completed by 2028, the agency spokesman said.

Referring to two other locations, he said that basic documentation for the bases identified in the north of the country is being drafted in order to begin planning construction in the next phase. /Telegraph/