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Germany to Buy US Tomahawk Missiles 07/10 06:10
Germany has struck a deal to buy U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles and
station them in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced Thursday.
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany has struck a deal to buy U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise
missiles and station them in Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced
Thursday.
The agreement on the long-range missiles, which are used to strike targets
deep inside enemy territory, was reached this week on the sidelines of the NATO
summit in Turkey's capital, Ankara, Merz said.
"This will close an important strategic gap in our defense, and at the same
time, we will work to develop our own European systems and station them in
Europe," he told the German parliament after returning from the two-day summit.
The deal struck with the Trump administration amounts to broader export of
U.S. know-how to some of its major allies in Europe, whose security posture has
been upended by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the U.S. will give Ukraine a
license to make Patriot air defense systems to counter missile attacks from
Russia -- a major coup for Kyiv which has long requested the technology.
The Tomahawk cruise missile has been in the U.S. military's inventory since
the 1980s. While slow by missile standards, it flies around 100 feet (about 30
meters) off the ground, making it harder to detect by defense systems.
The Tomahawk has a range of around 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) and
precision guidance systems that make it the go-to weapon for striking targets
that are deep inland or in hostile territory.
The deal centers a U.S. commitment to give Germany approval in August to
procure an undisclosed number of Tomahawks and corresponding ground-based
Typhoon launchers.
Deployment of U.S. personnel to operate the systems was not part of the
letter of intent signed on Tuesday that underpins the agreement. Successive
German governments have been seeking such a deal since 2023.
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