The United States has approved the $3.5 billion sale of Israel’s Arrow-3 missile defence system to Germany.

The relevant agreement will be the largest defence agreement ever concluded by Israel, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

Israel and Germany will sign a Letter of Commitment, with an initial payment of $600 million, to begin operations under this program, the statement said, adding that the full contract will be ready for signature by the end of 2023.

The US is a partner in the Arrow program, which was jointly developed by the Israel Missile Defence Organization and the US Missile Defence Agency.

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Russia’s war in Ukraine has highlighted the lack of ground-based air defence systems (GBAD) in many Western countries. Such systems are Raytheon’s Patriot units or the more recently-developed IRIS-T system.

While the Patriot and IRIS-T systems cover the medium layer of air defence, the Arrow-3, produced by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing Co, offers the highest-layer protection (exoatmospheric).

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The Arrow-3 uses a detachable warhead that collides with the target (Hit-to-kill) and is designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth’s atmosphere at a height that allows any unconventional warhead to be safely destroyed.

Arrow-3 technical characteristics:

• Engine: Two-stage
• Operational range: 2400 km
• Flight ceiling: >100km
• Maximum speed: Hypersonic
• Guidance system: Inertial navigation system (INS) 

Germany has said that it expects its Air Force to receive the Arrow-3s by the fourth quarter of 2025.

The radio station of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) reported that the signing ceremony for the sale of the Arrow-3 is expected to take place with Germany in November.

Also read: Arrow 3 | Flight test of Israeli missile completed successfully – VIDEO