IRIS-T SLM, long battle-tested in the Ukraine war, where it achieved intercept rates of nearly 100 percent—and yet its introduction into the Bundeswehr stalled. The angles of ladders were too steep, cranes not German-certified. The declaration of Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on September 3, 2024 was more appearance than substance—at least for the German armed forces. But now this is changing, as the Bundeswehr announced today. The air defense system IRIS-T SLM was described as being “on the home stretch to readiness.”
Air Defense Under Construction
„It is modern, powerful and battle-tested through its use by the Ukrainian forces: the air defense system IRIS-T SLM is regarded as a key element of the modernization of the Bundeswehr’s air defense,“ reports the Bundeswehr today. „After intensive months of training and preparation, the soldiers of the Air Defense Missile Group 61 will fire live missiles for the first time in October 2026. On Crete the unit has a target: to obtain certification for deployment, also in NATO’s integrated air defense. The final preparations are currently taking place in Todendorf on the Baltic Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein.“
Thus, what in September 2024 seemed to be an accelerated procurement has finally come to an end. After all, the Bundeswehr at that time did not only buy a commercially available system, but even a battle-tested air defense system. IRIS-T SLM was also part of the European procurement program ESSI, a framework contract that makes particularly proven defense systems available to European NATO states for procurement at fixed terms, in order to jointly form a European shield.
Germany was thus convinced of IRIS-T SLM, to which the enthusiastic and convincing success reports from Ukraine no doubt contributed. But in fact, the IOC ceremony in September 2024 did not mark the system’s introduction into the Bundeswehr, but the start of an extensive validation process. A few days later, the only air defense system delivered to the Bundeswehr was handed back to the Wehrtechnische Dienststelle 81. There, the Federal Office for Equipment, Information Technology and Use of the Bundeswehr (BAAINBw) began the legally required verification process. In thorough detail.
Nachweisführung IRIS-T SLM
According to the Ministry of Defence, this verification is intended to ensure compliance with all German safety and certification requirements. Only after the completion of these tests can the system be formally released for use. Here, however, a tension becomes evident that has increasingly accompanied German procurement and affects other systems that operate successfully in other nations, but not in Germany. The Heavy Weapons Carrier Infantry is another example: in use in Australia, two years in testing in Germany.
Indeed there were reasons for a faster introduction or verification of IRIS-T SLM. After all, the air defense system developed by Diehl Defence has been protecting Ukrainian cities and their critical infrastructure from Russian cruise missiles, aircraft and drones for four years.
Weiterentwicklungen mit Kriegserfahrung der Ukraine
It remains to be hoped that the German IRIS-T SLM will not stay at its current level with a (certified) design freeze. After all, Diehl Defence continues to develop the system together with the Ukrainian armed forces. New solutions often arise directly from the experiences of the ongoing war or are even implemented by the Ukrainian armed forces themselves. As S&T has learned, even the engineers at Diehl Defence were astonished by how quickly and effectively Ukraine was able to integrate Starlink into the system.
Now, however, the official introduction of the successful and battle-tested German air defense system into the Bundeswehr is the next step. After all, the Bundeswehr itself says that IRIS-T SLM is on the home stretch to readiness. In Todendorf, an exercise is currently taking place “as a final preparation for a historic event [to occur]: the first live shot and the certification for deployment in air defense.” After that, the air defense system will finally and truly be in the Bundeswehr. It has also been about time.
Author: Dorothee Frank, Online Editor-in-Chief
