Berlin is considering buying a missile defense system from Israel or the United States to defend against threats including Russian Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, German weekly Welt am Sonntag reported.
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The Iskander missiles can reach almost all of Western Europe and there is no missile shield in place to protect against this threat, Germany's chief of defense Eberhard Zorn told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.
"The Israelis and the Americans possess such systems. Which one do we prefer? Will we manage to establish an overall [missile defense[ system in NATO? These are the questions we need to answer now," Zorn said.
He did not specify the names of the systems but was most likely referring to Arrow 3 built by Israel Aerospace Industries and the US THAAD system produced by Lockheed Martin.
Russia said in 2018 that it had deployed Iskander missiles to its Kaliningrad exclave, a slice of Russia wedged between Poland and Lithuania. A mobile ballistic missile system, the Iskander replaced the Soviet Scud missile and its two guided missiles can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.
In a landmark speech days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin would hike its defense spending to more than 2% of its economic output by injecting 100 billion euros ($110 billion) into the military.
Zorn belongs to a group of high-ranking officials consulting with Scholz on how to spend this money.
"So far, only one thing is clear: We have neither the time nor the money to develop these (missile defense) systems on our own because the missile threat is known to already be there," Zorn said.
Referring to Germany's lack of a short-range missile defense system, which can be used to protect troops on the move or under threat while deployed, he said Berlin had started looking into the purchase of such systems and it now had to make a decision.
Beyond this, the Bundeswehr will have to invest 20 billion euros by 2032 to replenish its ammunition storages, Zorn added.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of the German parliament's defense committee, said in March that Germany should consider various options for missile defense, including against high-flying ballistic missiles which enter space for part of their flight.
"Israel produces such a system and it makes sense to not only look into different scenarios but also to potentially buy it as soon as possible," he told Welt television at the time.
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