Germany back in 2023 signed a contract with Israeli company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for supplying Arrow 3 missile defense systems worth $3.5 billion. Already on December 1, 2026, at an airbase near Annaburg city in Saxony-Anhalt, the system was deployed and reached initial combat readiness.
However, it turned out that two days before official deployment, three unknown drones flew over this system. Moreover, Defense Romania noted that they flew at approximately 100 meters altitude directly over the radar station from Arrow 3 composition.
G27P assault rifles were used for this, equipped with Israeli Smash X4 smart sights, which have recently been actively promoted as a anti-drone solution. However, they failed to shoot down the unmanned aircraft, which then disappeared from the scene.
Later, German counterintelligence and military police classified this incident as an act of deliberate espionage. Defense Express adds that despite all importance of this system which, besides costing over $3.5 billion, is nearly Europe’s only defense against russian Oreshnik and intercontinental ballistic missiles Germany couldn’t protect it from three drones flying directly over it.
There are hundreds of unmovable military targets, using the Arrow 3 system as an example is nothing more than clickbait as it’s not intended to shoot down drones.
The title could have easily been “German air defense fails to intercept suspicious drones” or something along those lines.
Almost anyone with a sense of logic would know that the troops who couldn’t shoot the drone down were not, in fact, trying to use the Arrow to do it.