The record What this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.
Record
Conflict relevance
This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the modules below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.
Operators
Ukraine: Donated by Germany from 2022; no Ukrainian production. · Germany and the eastern flank: Ordered for the Bundeswehr from 2023 as the medium-range layer of the European Sky Shield Initiative, with the first system handed over to the Luftwaffe in 2024. No holdings recorded. · Estonia and the eastern flank: Contracted on 11 September 2023 through the Estonian Centre for Defence Investment, jointly framed with Latvia. The Defence Forces state that the first of three fire units was delivered and received by the Air Force's Air Defence Wing at Ämari on 22 June 2026, with the other two due in 2027; the Air Force commander said training and fielding would take months. Delivered, not declared operational. · Latvia and the eastern flank: Purchase order signed with the manufacturer on 30 November 2023 under the joint framework with Estonia. The Air Force commander said on 1 October 2026 that the first package is expected by the end of 2026 and combat duty in the first half of 2027. Recorded as a programme.
Battlefield role
Point and area defence against cruise missiles, aircraft and drones, identified in specialist assessment as one of the two principal medium-range systems — with NASAMS — carrying Ukraine's cruise-missile defence. It sits above the cheap counter-drone belt and below Patriot and SAMP/T, and it is not the layer that engages ballistic missiles. That separation is the point: a system that performs well against one threat class buys nothing against another.
Strengths
Effective as a point-defence asset against cruise missiles, and supplied by a single donor with a continuing production relationship rather than assembled from a drawdown of existing stocks.
Limitations
Not an anti-ballistic system. Its supply is entirely external, and the constraint that applies to every donated layer applies here: the number of launchers fielded matters less than the rate at which interceptor missiles are replaced, and that rate is not published.
Documented conflict use
In documented Ukrainian service since 2022. The German Federal Government's own itemisation of military support — the only primary source that separates what has been delivered from what is planned — recorded six IRIS-T (SLM/SLS) systems delivered together with SLM and SLS missiles, against ten systems listed as planned or in execution. That list is explicitly an overview as of 17 April 2025 and states that it will not be updated further, so it establishes a floor for deliveries at that date and says nothing about what has arrived since. Higher figures reported during 2026 are attributed in media reporting to Ukrainian officials and are not published here, because no primary source was found to support them. NATO EASTERN FLANK. The same system is the medium-range layer Germany chose for itself under the European Sky Shield Initiative and that Estonia and Latvia bought jointly in 2023 — the first common Baltic air-defence purchase. Estonia's first fire unit reached the Air Force's Air Defence Wing on 22 June 2026, the first of three; Latvia's is due by the end of 2026. Neither is declared operational, and no source states either as integrated into NATO command. The Ukrainian deliveries and the allied orders draw on one production line, which is why the module reads them together under its air-defence-production economy object. No holdings, sites or deployments are stated for any allied operator.
Branch & service operators
- Luftwaffe Documented
- Estonian Air Force Documented
Assessed as of — 2026-10 Last reviewed — 2026-10-01