Berlin hopes for agreement on joint air defence in mid-October, defence minister says

In April, Germany's Chief of Defence Eberhard Zorn said Berlin was considering buying a missile defence system from Israel or the United States to defend against threats such as Russian Iskander missiles deployed to Kaliningrad that can reach almost all of western Europe.

Germany aims to strike a deal with other NATO partners about the establishment of a joint missile defence at a meeting in mid-October, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told Reuters.

"At the next NATO ministers' meeting, we hope to reach agreement regarding a joint air defence," she said in an interview conducted on Wednesday and published on Friday. NATO defence ministers will next meet in Brussels Oct. 13-14.

Lambrecht said she could not give details on the partners involved as the talks were not completed yet. She confirmed, however, that she sees Israel's Arrow 3 missile defence system, built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), as a good candidate.

"We already talked with Israel and the United States, and it is no secret that Arrow 3 certainly is a system that could fill the gap in our capabilities," Lambrecht said, adding negotiations were not completed yet. Arrow 3 interceptors are designed to fly beyond the earth's atmosphere, where their warheads detach to become "kamikaze" satellites, or "kill vehicles", that track and slam into the targets. Such high-altitude shoot-downs are meant to safely destroy incoming nuclear, biological or chemical missiles.

U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin produces a rival system called THAAD. In April, Germany's Chief of Defence Eberhard Zorn said Berlin was considering buying a missile defence system from Israel or the United States to defend against threats such as Russian Iskander missiles deployed to Kaliningrad that can reach almost all of western Europe.

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