Ukraine war accelerates European purchases of advanced equipment from Israel
The vast majority of European Union countries have significantly increased their requests and purchases of advanced defence systems from Israel, according to a report compiled by the Brussels-based Europe-Israel Journalists Association. For Siamak Kordestani, the report's editor, "when the founders of the modern state of Israel declared its independence, they probably never imagined that their fledgling country would become an indispensable partner in the modernisation of the European [military] industry". Cutting-edge technology, designed to counter the Russian threat and its obvious expansionist ambitions.
Finland, Romania, the Netherlands, Greece, Denmark, Estonia, the UK, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, Germany and Spain are the countries that have increased their purchases of various state-of-the-art materials and systems from Israel the most. Helsinki, the latest capital to join NATO as a full-fledged member, is already being equipped with the David's Sling air defence system, a deal worth more than 310 million euros.
Of all the contracts, the largest in Israel's history is the Arrow-3 missile defence system, which Germany is reportedly close to concluding for more than 4 billion euros. This deal would be the most important in the military cooperation between Berlin and Tel Aviv. Germany builds and supplies Israel with Dolphin-class submarines, which are considered by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to be 'essential for strategic deterrence against hostile states'. In turn, Germany arms with Israeli ammunition the drones also purchased from Israel Heron-TP, currently considered to be the most sophisticated drones developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
To all these purchases must be added those resulting from the new European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) which, led by Germany, the 17 European countries that have joined together to build an integrated air and missile defence across the continent have signed up to. Under the general heading of ESSI, the technologies of Arrow-3, David's Sling and Iron Dome, the Iron Dome with which Israel protects itself from the barrage of Iranian-made missiles launched in waves from neighbouring Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, will be brought together.
According to the report, the new deals will exponentially multiply sales of its most advanced technology systems to Europe, which has already made the EU Israel's largest trading partner. The EU itself is also the largest funder of innovation in Israel, which has also been integrated into Europe's main research and development programme, Horizon Europe.
Although the UK is no longer part of the EU, coordination with the EU on security and defence matters continues. London has recently signed an agreement with Israel that boosts security, technology and trade ties, while the current UK government of Rishi Sunak is promoting legislation that would prohibit local government councils from participating in the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
The commitment by virtually all European NATO countries to increase their defence budgets to at least 2% of their national GDP has opened the way for an increase in defence modernisation, all the more so as the Russian offensive in Ukraine has exposed the many shortfalls.