The European Iron Dome

Yesterday, Germany successfully tested an Israeli ballistic missile in the Atlantic, just a few hours after Berlin attributed an attempted drone attack on Leipzig Airport to Russia. Chief of the Navy Jan Christian Kaack said: “Its range exceeds anything we have seen so far. In terms of protecting Germany and our allies, this test marks a new chapter in deterrence.” Also yesterday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that without Germany’s arms supplies to Israel, “the Jewish state would no longer exist”. Chancellor Merz made this remark during a debate on the ARD network, explaining why arms supplies to Israel will continue. “As long as I bear political responsibility, we will always support the State of Israel’s right to exist, including militarily, because otherwise that state would no longer exist,” said Merz. “Israel’s existence is non-negotiable for us.”

Germany accounted for 31 per cent of Israel’s defence imports in 2025, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Meanwhile, three other key NATO countries have, within the space of a week, placed their trust in the protection of the small Jewish state. Europe’s dependence on Israeli technology has meant that the value of defence agreements between Israel and European Union countries relating to air defence has exceeded the almost unimaginable figure of fifteen billion euros in less than five years, whilst the continent struggles to rebuild its defences, which had been neglected since the Cold War. On 30 August, Finland announced the renewal of its ten-year pact with Israel until 2034. On 31 August, Greece signed the largest strategic agreement with Israel in history. On 1 September, Estonia indicated it was interested in purchasing the Israeli ‘David’s Sling’ system. Every day, another European country ties its security and deterrence to that of the Jewish state.

Germany has already relied on Arrow 3 (this was the first deployment of Israeli anti-missile batteries outside Israel), the Czech Republic on Spyder, Slovakia and Cyprus on the Barak MX system, and Romania on Iron Dome (the first overseas deployment of the Israeli ‘steel dome’). Jerusalem and Athens have just announced their defence agreement, dubbed the ‘Shield of Achilles’, at a time when relations between Jerusalem and Turkey are undergoing a marked deterioration. The agreement is worth 3.3 billion dollars. Israel will build a multi-layered Greek air defence network, designed to counter aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones.

Finland has extended its cooperation agreement with Israel until 2034. The decision is primarily linked to growing Finnish concerns regarding Russia. Helsinki shares a 1,340-kilometre border with the Russian Federation and joined NATO in April 2023. Finland had already opted for the Israeli ‘David’s Sling’ missile defence system. Estonia, too, has now announced that it is considering the purchase of the Israeli defence system. These contracts also mark a huge political shift. In the 1970s and 1980s, Athens viewed the Arab world as a diplomatic shield against secular, pro-Israeli Turkey and, in return, supported Arafat’s PLO (in 1982, it was Greece that sent a ship to Beirut to evacuate the Palestinian leader, who would eventually end up in Tunis). Today, this old line of reasoning is obsolete. What Greece needs now is not the diplomatic shield against Turkey that the Arab world once provided, but the physical shield that only Israel can offer it.

The Greek system will incorporate the ‘David’s Sling’ to intercept ballistic missiles and heavy rockets; the Spyder and Barak systems to defend strategic sites from threats ranging from drones to cruise missiles; sophisticated MMR radars; the Drone Dome anti-drone systems; and a national command and control network to coordinate the whole operation. This is not merely an arms sale. It is the export of an entire defence architecture, developed under enemy fire, tested in war from Gaza to Lebanon via Iran, and perfected through repeated attacks by enemies using a wide variety of weapons. Every contract forces European governments to reconcile two languages: that of morality and that of security, which counts the seconds between the launch of a missile and its impact.

Europe is learning, albeit belatedly, that the survival of democracies is not decided solely in parliaments and in the press, but also within a network of radars and interceptor missiles when the skies turn dark.