The planes of Germany's top officials will be equipped with a system to protect against missile attacks

>> Germany's top officials will be equipped with a system to protect against missile attacks” />

In Germany, three new government aircraft of the A350 type should be equipped as soon as possible with a system to protect against possible missile attacks.

As “Europavska Pravda” writes, Spiegel learned about it.

The Ministry of Defense wants to submit the corresponding contract to the budget committee of the Bundestag for budget approval before the end of the year.

It is planned that the three wide-body aircraft, which are mainly used by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister ” “Green” Annalena Burbok, will be equipped with an infrared system on the fuselage of the aircraft capable of disabling the homing heads of approaching missiles with the help of laser pulses.

The high-tech system was developed by the Israeli company Elbit together with Diehl Defence, and many military transport aircraft of the Israeli Air Force are already equipped with it. Such defense systems can also be used for flights to crisis states where there is a risk of attack from the ground – such as in Mali in West Africa.

Installation of the systems, known in technical jargon as “directed infrared countermeasures”, must be phased in so that all three long-haul aircraft do not fail at the same time. Especially at large international meetings, such as the UN General Assembly in New York, disputes regularly arise about who is allowed to use luxuriously equipped government planes and who has to fly on regular flights.

Recall that last year's visit by the head of the MFA trips to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji had to be canceled due to persistent technical problems with the old government plane – Airbus A340. Since then, it has been decommissioned.

Then the plane twice tried to take off from Abu Dhabi, where it was performing scheduled refueling, but failed.