In a ceremony in September last year, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and his Israeli counterpart Joav Galant (64) signed the largest arms deal in Israeli history. The federal government is spending almost four billion euros from the Bundeswehr’s special funds to better protect Germany from air raids in the future. In return, Germany will receive three of the Israeli-American “Arrow Weapon” systems, one of which will be stationed at the Holzdorf/Schönewalde air base near Berlin, one, according to various media reports, in Schleswig-Holstein and one in Bavaria – where exactly is not yet clear.
One location that “is being considered and has been assessed as suitable” is the Penzing air base near Landsberg am Lech, as a spokesman for the Air Force explains. The reaction to this in Penzing is cautious. Mayor Peter Hammer (CSU) was initially annoyed that the community was not involved in the planning, he says. Since then, however, the collaboration has been going well, “which doesn’t mean that the cow is off the ice.” He emphasizes that he is not against stationing the weapon system in principle. But he and Penzing’s residents are concerned that civilian companies could be displaced as a result, such as the ADAC test track for autonomous and networked driving and the Hyperbowl Penzing film studios, where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nicole Kidman recently worked on films.
The fact is: the air force and the government do not like to be hand-in-hand when planning the defense system. A spokesman for the Air Force explains how the procurement process works. The Air Force defines the parameters that the location needs to ensure the use of the weapons and radar – however, these are subject to the military level of secrecy “secret”, which is why they are not made public. Based on these parameters, the Federal Office for Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and Operations assesses the situation and checks which locations are suitable.
Since concerns about the stationing were raised in Penzing, the Air Force is still looking for suitable locations. “We are of course trying to find a better alternative,” says an Air Force spokesman. Additional locations are currently being “examined for their operational suitability”. The only thing that is certain is that this search for a location is limited to southern Germany and that properties are primarily searched for in Bavaria, but it cannot be ruled out that the choice of location falls on a property in Baden-Württemberg.
What the defense system is capable of was shown when Israel was recently attacked by Iran. Thanks, among other things, to the “Arrow Weapon System,” most of the approximately 300 drones, rockets and cruise missiles shot down by Iran were destroyed before they even reached Israeli territory.
“Arrow Weapon” is considered the gold standard in international air defense and was developed in an American-Israeli collaboration between Aerospace Industries and Boeing. It includes a command post, radars and several missile carriers, each with six missile launchers. It is designed to defend against long-range missiles that fly at an altitude of more than 100 kilometers and are fired from a distance of up to 2,400 kilometers. It is capable of detecting attacks, tracking and destroying enemy missiles. This means that Germany can also provide protection to neighboring countries and contribute to the European Sky Shield air defense project. “In this way, Germany will quickly close a capability gap that is equally recognized by the EU and NATO,” says the Air Force.