When Russia used its new Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile against Ukraine for the second time in early January, many experts looked to Brandenburg – specifically Holzdorf Air Base. Only weeks earlier, the initial operational capability of the Israeli Arrow 3 system had been established there. Germany now possesses a capability unmatched among its European NATO allies to counter this new Russian threat. Eighty years after the Holocaust, an Israeli defense system is helping to protect Germany and its neighbors.
The strategic scope of the project underscores that what was once largely discreet German-Israeli defense cooperation is no longer a one-way street. Germany benefits from Israeli Heron drones and protection systems for tanks and government aircraft, just as Israel benefits from German submarines and transmission systems for Merkava tanks.
At a time of geopolitical upheaval and mounting calls for greater European sovereignty, cooperation with Israel offers considerable potential. This view is increasingly shared in European parliaments, as the latest Israel Survey conducted by the European Leadership Network (ELNET) indicates. In the long-term comparison from 2022 to 2025, an above-average share of respondents support closer ties with Israel – particularly in counterterrorism, defense and innovation. Support for enhanced defense cooperation has risen markedly: while 24% of surveyed members of parliament favored closer military cooperation with Israel in 2022, that figure increased to 57% in 2025. The reasons are clear.
Anyone who considers the threat posed by Russian medium-range ballistic missiles too abstract need only look to Europe’s skies. In 2025 alone, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office recorded more than 1,000 suspicious drone overflights. Small drones disrupt air traffic, conduct surveillance of military installations and critical infrastructure, and monitor Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany – and do so largely unhindered.
Israel has faced comparable threats for two decades. At the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, four Hezbollah drones carrying explosives entered Israeli airspace for the first time. Israel subsequently accelerated the development of detection and neutralization capabilities – so-called Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). Germany now seeks to draw on this experience. During a visit to Jerusalem earlier this year, German Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt reaffirmed plans to intensify cyber cooperation to establish a German “cyber dome,” as well as to expand collaboration in drone defense.
Given the rapid evolution of drone technology, Germany should not only learn from Israeli technology and tactics – but also from the speed with which Israel continuously adapts its capabilities to emerging threats.
Developments in Ukraine underscore the urgency. In 2024, roughly 70% of drones used by both sides were neutralized through signal jamming. Yet this former gold standard is losing effectiveness. Wire-guided drones and systems relying on artificial intelligence during the terminal phase are increasingly circumventing such defenses. A sustained transfer of expertise between Israel and Germany – for example through the establishment of German-Israeli defense tech hubs – could secure a decisive qualitative advantage over Russia and other adversaries. This applies not only to drone defense, but also to future technologies such as the military use of artificial intelligence and cyber defense.
Carsten Ovens is CEO of the European Leadership Network (ELNET) in Berlin.
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