Morocco Acquires Advanced Israeli Missile Defense System, Raising Spanish Concerns

The Barak MX acquired by Morocco is manufactured by the company Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the same one that should supply the equipment necessary for the construction of a European anti-missile system promoted by Germany and which the government of Pedro Sanchez has refused to participate in after the insistent invitation of the German Foreign Minister, Olaf Scholz, while fifteen Eurozone countries have already agreed to join this project.

The Popular Party (PP) has asked Congress to authorize Spain to join this project, but the PSOE has opposed it. Yet the objective of this European air defense system, which will be complementary to that of NATO, is to ensure the integrity of the member countries in order to respond to the threats of drones and cruise missiles.

We expected Spain’s accession to this new project to be on the agenda of the Spanish-German summit that was held a few days ago in La Coruña. But the subject was not mentioned.

The Barak MX is equipped with radars capable of detecting a target at 470 kilometers. Morocco placed the order for this system in February 2022, as part of the strategic defense cooperation agreement signed in 2021 with Israel. A historic agreement that has allowed the kingdom to acquire state-of-the-art weapons such as Heron or Hermes 900 drones, Harop kamikaze drones or Spike anti-tank missiles.