Slovenia buys one German IRIS-T surface-to-air missile system
Ljubljana, 12 January - Slovenia's decision to pick German manufacturer Diehl Defence as a medium-range air defence system supplier became final on Wednesday, the Defence Ministry confirmed for the STA, announcing the company will deliver one IRIS-T surface-to-air missile system. The price, including all support elements and missiles is EUR 146.82 million.
Germany
A land-based air defence system.
Photo: Wikipedia
File photo
The purchase of the system comes after the newspaper Delo said in mid-2023 that Slovenia was planning to buy two German IRIS-T units for an estimated EUR 200 million in total. The unofficial report was met with open criticism from the junior coalition Left party.
The Defence Ministry meanwhile pointed out that the purchase was organised through the German Federal Ministry of Defence. On the sidelines of a NATO ministerial in October 2022, Slovenia signed a letter of intent together with 14 countries to join the European Sky Shield initiative. Launched by Germany, the initiative includes 19 countries as of July 2003.
In August, the European Sky Shield Initiative Memorandum of Understanding - ESSI MOU was signed to create a basis for setting up a mechanism of joint public procurement of air defence systems, the ministry said, and Slovenia became on 6 December the first of the 19 members of the initiative to sign a programmatic agreement with Germany for the purchase of the Iris-T SLM system.
The system is surface-to-air variant with a range of up to 40 kilometres that can hit targets at altitudes of up to 20,000 metres. Germany supplied two IRIS-T systems to Ukraine, Delo wrote, and according to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, the missiles had a 100% success rate.