Slovenia to purchase German air defence system

Slovenia will buy the German IRIS-T SLM air defence system, manufactured by Diehl Defence GmbH, under an agreement that they signed with the German Defence Ministry, the Slovenian Defence Ministry announced on Thursday.

The deal comes after Slovenia joined the European Sky Shield initiative in October 2022, launched by Germany, and currently includes 19 countries.

In August, the European Sky Shield Initiative Memorandum of Understanding was signed to create a basis for joint public procurement of air defence systems. Slovenia signed the deal with Germany on 6 December.

The details of the plan have not been revealed but Delo has reported that it involves two IRIS-T systems, valued at roughly €200 million.

The systems are surface-to-air variants with a range of up to 40 kilometres that can hit targets at altitudes of up to 20,000 metres. Germany has supplied two such systems to Ukraine.

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