Germany expands its exoatmospheric missile shield with second Arrow-3 deployment

VIENNA — Germany is expanding its nascent territorial missile shield, with the Bundeswehr announcing plans for a second Arrow air defense site in Bavaria to complement the system’s inaugural battery near Berlin.

The Defense Ministry said Tuesday that an “Einsatzstellung Süd,” or southern operational position, will be built in the greater Kaufbeuren area to house elements of the Arrow Weapon System for Germany, or AWS-G. The decision was announced jointly by Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder, Luftwaffe chief Lt. Gen. Holger Neumann and the Defense Ministry’s director-general for force expansion, Alexander Götz.

The new site expands upon the deployment reported last December , when Germany activated the first Arrow 3 battery at Fliegerhorst Holzdorf/Schönewalde, straddling Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. It was the system’s first-ever deployment outside Israel.

That initial rollout, delivered under an accelerated schedule negotiated with manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries, gave the Bundeswehr its first-ever capability to detect and intercept ballistic missiles above the atmosphere. At the time, officials had already signaled that the system’s eventual architecture would include additional batteries in Schleswig-Holstein in the north and Bavaria in the south.

Kaufbeuren will be home to the system’s radar site, while the actual interceptor launchers for that battery are planned for nearby Fliegerhorst Lechfeld, according to German public media.

The Ministry of Defense casts Arrow as a defensive system meant to provide early warning and protection for the population, critical infrastructure and the military, while emphasizing Germany’s role as a logistics hub for allied forces moving toward NATO’s eastern flank in a potential conflict. The Kaufbeuren-area position is intended to strengthen the system’s ability to detect and destroy ballistic missiles at altitudes above 100 kilometers through kinetic impact.

The expansion follows a broader pattern of accelerating Arrow procurement since the Schönewalde activation, including a $3.1 billion follow-on contract Germany and Israel signed in December to expand interceptor and launcher stocks, pushing total German purchases of the system past $6.5 billion. Berlin’s full operational rollout of Arrow across multiple sites is expected to continue through the end of the decade.

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

维也纳——德国正在扩大其新兴的领土导弹防御系统，联邦国防军宣布计划在巴伐利亚州建设第二个“箭”式防空导弹系统基地，以补充该系统在柏林附近的首个导弹防御系统。

德国国防部周二宣布，将在考夫博伊伦地区建造一座名为“Einsatzstellung Süd”（南部作战阵地）的设施，用于部署德国“箭式”武器系统（AWS-G）的部分组件。该决定由巴伐利亚州州长马库斯·索德尔、德国空军司令霍尔格·诺伊曼中将和国防部负责部队扩充的总干事亚历山大·格茨共同宣布。

新部署地点是对去年12月报道的部署的扩展。当时，德国在弗利格霍斯特霍尔茨多夫/舍内瓦尔德（横跨勃兰登堡州和萨克森-安哈尔特州）启用了首个“箭-3”导弹防御系统。这是该系统首次在以色列境外部署。

该系统最初是在与制造商以色列航空航天工业公司协商加快进度后交付的，使德国联邦国防军首次具备了在大气层外探测和拦截弹道导弹的能力。当时，官员们已经表示，该系统的最终架构将在北部的石勒苏益格-荷尔斯泰因州和南部的巴伐利亚州增设导弹发射阵地。

据德国公共媒体报道，考夫博伊伦将作为该系统的雷达站所在地，而该导弹阵地的实际拦截器发射器则计划建在附近的莱希费尔德空军基地。

德国国防部将“箭”式导弹防御系统定位为一种防御系统，旨在为民众、关键基础设施和军队提供预警和保护，同时强调德国在潜在冲突中作为盟军向北约东翼推进的后勤枢纽的作用。考夫博伊伦地区的部署旨在增强该系统探测和摧毁100公里以上高空弹道导弹的能力，其原理是通过动能撞击。

自舍内瓦尔德导弹系统启用以来，德国一直在加速推进“箭”式导弹系统的采购，此次扩充正是这一趋势的体现。此前，德国和以色列于去年12月签署了一份价值31亿美元的后续合同，用于扩大拦截弹和发射装置的库存，使得德国对该系统的采购总额超过65亿美元。预计柏林将在多个地点全面部署“箭”式导弹系统，直至本十年末。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。