Israel’s Role In Europe’s Air Defense

In recent months, Israel has faced mounting pressure from several European countries over its conduct in the war in the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped some European countries from purchasing Israel’s battle-tested air defense systems. Furthermore, Ukraine has confirmed that Israel made available the American-made MIM-104 Patriot PAC-2 systems Israel retired last year, a much-needed addition to Kyiv’s strained air defense.

“The Israeli system has been operating in Ukraine for a month,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on September 27. “We will receive [another] two Patriot systems in the fall, that’s all I’m going to say.”

Additionally, Ukrainian media reported on the return of a Ukrainian An-124 heavy-lift cargo plane from Israel. The report noted that the aircraft carried “containers outwardly identical to containers used by the Israeli military to transport Patriot interceptor missiles.”

Israel officially denies supplying Kyiv with any of these systems. It maintains that it merely returned the systems to the U.S. after retiring them from service. Washington is widely believed to have first refurbished them before transferring them to Ukraine.

While Israel operated the PAC-2 variant of the Patriot, which uses a proximity fuse to destroy incoming targets rather than the hit-to-kill technology used in the more advanced PAC-3, Kyiv needs all the air defense it can get. Russia’s drone bombardments show no sign of any let-up, with fears that Moscow could soon launch a 2,000-drone barrage in a single night!

In one particularly nasty incident on September 30, an entire family of four, including two children aged four and six, perished in an overnight drone strike on a residential building in a village in the northeastern Sumy region. Overnight strikes against another village in the western Lviv region on Saturday similarly killed four members of the same family.

Zelensky said over a year ago that his country requires 25 Patriot systems to cover its enormous airspace completely. Ukraine is unlikely ever to receive that amount. Germany recently pledged two systems for Ukraine. It’s unclear how many of the ex-Israeli systems Kyiv will ultimately receive, with previous reports suggesting as many as eight, which would be a substantial contribution.

While Israel doesn’t seek public recognition for transferring the Patriots, which it has always felt were highly overrated since first receiving them in the early 1990s, it has publicly made several significant export deals for its homegrown air defenses to Europe. Many European countries are understandably worried about gaps in the continent’s air defense, especially against Russia’s strategic missiles. And few countries have advanced air defenses as rigorously battle-tested as Israel.

Take Finland, for example. Sharing a lengthy border with Russia and a history of invasion, Helsinki has always kept its powder dry. Despite its small population and modest wealth compared to its Scandinavian neighbors to the west, it has always consistently maintained an effective military, packing the largest artillery arsenal in Western Europe. Only a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland ordered a large fleet of F/A-18 Hornets. Just before Russia fatefully invaded Ukraine in 2022, Helsinki ordered 64 fifth-generation F-35A Lightning II stealth jets to replace those aging Hornets, a massive investment for such a small country.

More recently, in November 2023, Helsinki turned to Israel for improving its ground-based air defenses and made an interesting choice: the David’s Sling. In Israeli service, the David’s Sling covers the middle part of that country’s multilayered air defense between the Arrow 3, designed for intercepting ballistic missiles above the atmosphere, and the short-range Iron Dome that intercepts small rockets. Finland has become the first foreign buyer of that system.

The Stunner missile fired by David’s Sling boasts a more extended range than the Patriot PAC-2, costs less, and can engage multiple targets, including tactical ballistic missiles, from 25 to 190 miles away.

For Finland, these systems could deter or defend against a multitude of Russian threats and offensive munitions and shield high-value targets in the country. Combined with its recent ascension into NATO, Russia may think twice about potentially attacking its northern neighbor.

The central European country of Slovakia recently chose Israel’s Barak MX system to replace its strategic S-300 air defense missile system inherited from the Soviet Union and donated to Ukraine shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion. As with David’s Sling, the Barak can defend against a range of threats from drones to cruise missiles and even tactical ballistic missiles.

The Republic of Cyprus, which attempted to acquire S-300s in the 1990s, recently received the Barak MX. Fielding that system will significantly enhance Cypriot air defense coverage to the extent that some on the partitioned island fear it could dangerously escalate tensions with Turkey. While the Cyprus acquisition wasn’t by a European country that views Russia as a primary threat, it nonetheless helps Cyprus replace its largely Russian-made military arsenal and, thus, lessen its prior dependency on Moscow for much of its military hardware.

And finally, there’s Germany’s landmark order of the Arrow 3. The Arrow 3 presently covers the uppermost layer of Israel’s air defense. It has been battle-proven against Houthi and Iranian ballistic missiles since late 2023. Germany envisions the system playing a central role in the 24-member European Sky Shield Initiative, proposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With hit-to-kill technology, the Arrow 3 is designed to intercept ballistic missiles above the Earth’s atmosphere, where it could more safely destroy unconventional payloads like nuclear weapons. It has an impressive range of 1,500 miles and can reach an altitude of 62 miles. It will become the first-ever exoatmospheric defense system fielded by a European army. Germany sees it as providing a defensive umbrella to its neighbors.

At $3.5 billion, it marks the largest-ever Israeli defense deal. Israel began the final phase of the agreement in June 2025, with the first deliveries expected in the coming months.

Of course, the deal has received some criticism. French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is notably absent from the ESSI, decried the initiative’s reliance on imported, non-European systems.

All these deals, reached in under three years, have seen Israel rapidly establish itself as a significant provider of some of Europe’s most advanced air defenses, a role it may well continue to play for many years to come.