Israel strikes biggest defence deal

During an official visit to Berlin, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and director general of the Israeli Defence Ministry, retired Major General Eyal Zamir, signed an intergovernmental deal on the sale of the Israeli Hetz-3 missile defence system (Arrow-3) to Germany.

This sale and purchase agreement became the biggest one in Israeli history. The deal is valued at approximately four billion euros ($4.2 billion). It envisages that the German side will receive the first batch with radar and interception control systems within about the next two years, 9tv.co.il reports.

"Hetz-3" is an anti-missile system used to destroy intercontinental ballistic missiles in airless space, capable of destroying artificial Earth satellites.

This system provides the so-called "top" level of the Israeli missile defence system, which begins with the Iron Dome system, intercepts short-range missiles, and ends with Arrow-3, which destroys any warhead at a safe altitude.

David's Sling (or Magic Wand) missile defence system, capable of intercepting long-range missiles - this mainly concerns Iranian missile threat, holds the middle place among the Iron Dome and Arrow systems (Hetz-2 and Hetz-3).

The developer and manufacturer of Hetz-4, Hetz-3 and Hetz-2 is the Israeli Aviation Industry concern. The US Boeing corporation has been its leading partner since 2002.