The Bundeswehr is preparing to conduct its first live firing of the IRIS-T SLM ground-based air-defence system during the Spartan Arrow 2026 exercise on Crete. The Diehl Defence-developed system will demonstrate Germany’s medium-range air-defence capability at the NATO Missile Firing Installation, where the Luftwaffe’s Flugabwehrraketengruppe 61 is scheduled to complete more than a year of training and seek NATO-standard operational certification.
Personnel from Todendorf in Schleswig-Holstein, Husum and other German air-defence units are taking part in the exercise, which involves around 700 troops, including approximately 120 from Sweden. Patriot and Ozelot systems will also be deployed, while Airbus is providing drone targets designed to represent threats such as aircraft and missiles.
IRIS-T SLM is designed to engage aircraft and drones at ranges of up to 40 kilometres and altitudes of up to 20 kilometres. Training has been conducted since summer 2023 at a joint Luftwaffe–Diehl Defence centre in Todendorf, combining technical instruction, tactical training and simulator work.
The exercise also supports Germany’s wider effort to rebuild ground-based air defence. Ozelot is being transferred from the Luftwaffe back to the Army, whose dedicated air-defence capability was disbanded in 2012. The Crete event concerns a planned first live firing; it does not yet confirm that a missile has been launched or that a target has been intercepted.