Volkswagen Goes to War: German Auto Giant Pivots to Defense with Israeli Iron Dome Maker

In a striking symbol of Europe's industrial transformation, Volkswagen is converting its Osnabrück plant into a defense manufacturing facility — with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the company behind Iron Dome, as its first partner. The move reflects a broader European scramble to retool civilian industry for military production as the continent's security calculus is fundamentally rewritten. That a German auto giant is now building air defense components alongside an Israeli defense firm says everything about how far Europe has traveled since 2022.