Germany is considering buying defenses from the United States or Israel to counter the threat of an Iskander missile in Kaliningrad, Russia. The German weekly Welt am Sonnag reported this on Saturday.
Russia’s Iskander missiles are capable of reaching almost all parts of Western Europe, Germany’s Chief of Defense Eberhard Jorn said in an interview with the weekly. And there is no defense in that area to deal with this threat.
Eberhard Jorn said, “Israel and the US have such systems. Which one should we choose? Will we procure an overall (missile defense) system for NATO? Now we need answers to these questions.
Germany’s chief of defense did not name a specific system. However, Germany is thought to be considering buying the Aero 3, made by Israel’s Aerospace Industries, and the Thad missile defense system, made by Raytheon in the United States.
In 2016, Russia said it had deployed Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad. Iskander is a mobile ballistic missile deployed in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory between Poland and Lithuania. It is capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
On February 24, just days after Russia launched its campaign in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz announced that his country would increase its defense spending to 2 percent of GDP.
