The United States will begin deploying long-range weapons to Germany in 2026 as part of a long-term defense strategy to counter the growing threat Russia poses to Europe, the two nations announced recently.
In a joint statement released during the July 2024 NATO summit in Washington, D.C., the countries said the “episodic” deployments will include Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons, “which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe.” The move will place the U.S. weapons on the European continent for the first time in decades.
“Exercising these advanced capabilities will demonstrate the United States’ commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence,” the joint statement read.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who spoke at the NATO summit, said the idea behind the U.S. plan was to encourage Germany and other European countries to put their own investment into developing and procuring longer-range missiles, the BBC reported. The temporary deployment of U.S. weapons would give NATO Allies the time to prepare.
“We are talking here about an increasingly serious gap in capability in Europe,” Pistorius said. He joined colleagues from France, Italy and Poland in signing a letter of intent aimed at developing long-range missiles in Europe. The European Long-Range Strike Approach includes the development of “missiles with a range beyond 500 kilometers” meant to “fill a gap in European arsenals that [participating nations] say has been exposed by Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Breaking Defense reported. The Europe-developed missile would address two linked concerns for European military planners: the need for more long-range strike capability and the need to greatly expand the ability of the continent’s industrial base to produce weapons at scale and speed.
The U.S. missiles’ deployment to Germany would have been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed by the Soviet Union and the U.S. in December 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The treaty limited both nations from fielding both “short range” and “intermediate range” land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and missile launchers that could be used to house either nuclear or conventional payloads. The U.S. withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019, citing Russia’s development of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile (known in NATO as the SSC-8 Screwdriver).
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has prompted NATO members to work toward strengthening their defense postures, including expanding their industrial bases. The Alliance has also welcomed new members Finland and Sweden, shoring up Europe’s Eastern flank.
“We welcome that more than two-thirds of Allies have fulfilled their commitment of at least 2% of GDP annual defense spending and commend those Allies who have exceeded it,” the Allies said in a communique released during the summit. “We have undertaken the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense in a generation … We cannot discount the possibility of an attack against Allies’ sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
IMAGE CREDIT: U.S. NAVY