Agreement between Volkswagen and Rafael: production of Iron Dome components in factories in Germany

According to sources privy to the details, Rafael’s CEO, Yoav Turgeman, held meetings in Berlin this week with senior German government officials and met with Volkswagen representatives in Wolfsburg, to discuss the details of the security cooperation.

The project is expected to lead to a change in the purpose of the Volkswagen factory in the western city of Ossenbruck – from a factory that until now produced cars and recently suffered from excess capacity and financial difficulties, to a production line of military vehicles intended for the missile defense system.

The vision, as first reported in the Financial Times, is the production of military trucks for the mobile air defense system from Rafael, and possibly also for the Magan Or laser-based system. Besides the factory in Ossenberg, which employs about 2,300 people, two other sites of the German manufacturer may benefit from the agreement through the supply chains.

The officials clarified that the missiles themselves and the core components of the defense systems will continue to be manufactured in Israel. After that, they will be installed on top of the military trucks that will be built in the German factory. The systems are expected to become another layer in the European Sky Defense Project, the defense system led by Germany and coordinated by NATO, launched in 2022 by former German Chancellor Olaf Schulz.

A spokeswoman for the German Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the reports, and spokespeople for Volkswagen and Rafale were not immediately available for comment. However, the CEO of Volkswagen, Oliver Blum, recently hinted that the future of the factory in Ossenberg may indeed take a turn towards the defense industry.

In an investor call last month, Bloom confirmed that the company is in contact with the defense industry, and added that this is a “very intelligent step to solve excess capacity”.

Blum noted that the car manufacturer’s experience could pave the way for further collaborations in the field, but emphasized that Volkswagen is not looking into producing weapons on its own: “We make available to the defense industry our experience in serial production and automation, which is very useful for them.”