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What’s the European Sky Shield Initiative, and why all the comparisons to Israel’s Iron Dome?

In August 2022, not long after the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, Germany launched a pan-European project ostensibly aimed at creating a coordinated air defense in Europe.

Some 18 other states signed on to this German plan, which was dubbed the European Sky Shield Initiative (or ESSI for short): Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Finland and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).

Two other countries, Turkiye and Greece, are also expected to join the ESSI this year, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced his week that Poland intends to sign on to the initiative as well.

While this scheme has already been compared by some to Israel’s Iron Dome system, but such comparison would be inaccurate.

 “The Iron Dome is a fully integrated AD (air defense) system aimed at protecting Israel with several layers of AD assets. The Sky Shield is more of a coordinated procurement system aimed at maximizing cost-effectiveness by coordinated acquisition of different AD systems.”

 “By doing this, interoperability and common maintenance will also be ensured. Sky Shields’ goals, are not presently, to create a common AD-system for the participating countries, but it will make such a system easier to achieve with few interoperable missile systems in the ESSI member countries,”