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Volume 4, Number 1
Summer 2004
Know Your Enemy: West German-Israeli
Intelligence Evaluation of Soviet Weapon Systems
by SHLOMO SHPIRO -- abstract
During the Cold War, considerable intelligence resources were
dedicated to collecting information on the other side's military capabilities.
Both Israel and West Germany were facing adverseries armed by the Soviet Union.
In the various Middle East wars, Israeli intelligence captured large
quantities of the most modern Soviet weapon systems. Close cooperation developed
between the Israeli Mossad and the West German BND over testing and evaluation
of captured Soviet weapons. The article examines the development of this
cooperation, which included aircraft, tanks, missiles and electronics. It
explores how the Mossad obtained a Mig 21 aircraft for
evaluation by bribing an Iraqi pilot to defect to Israel, and how Israel made
use of captured Soviet weapons in the 1956, 1962 and 1973 conflicts. It analyses
the effects of those evaluations on major German armaments projects, including
the Marder, Leopard II and Sidewinder. It also
explores German deliveries of former NVA weapon systems to Israel after the
German Unification, deliveries which culminated in the seizure of a large
shipment in Hamburg and an ensuing political scandal.
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