Germany agrees deal to buy US ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Ankara NATO summit
Germany will buy US ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, German-owned and German-operated, Merz announced after the Ankara NATO summit. Reports point to up to 400 Block Vb missiles from Raytheon $RTX, worth over 1 billion dollars. Per Reuters, the letter of intent was signed
Germany has agreed a deal with the United States to buy ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced in the Bundestag on Thursday. The agreement was reached on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara; per Reuters, citing German government sources, a letter of intent was signed on Tuesday. The package covers ground-launched Tomahawks together with Typhon launcher systems. The missiles will be German-owned and German-operated; the deployment of US personnel is not part of the arrangement. Reports point to up to 400 Tomahawk Block Vb missiles, valued at more than 1 billion dollars, built by Raytheon, part of RTX $RTX. Block V Tomahawks have a range exceeding 1,000 miles and can be retargeted in flight via a two-way datalink. Outside the United States, only Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom operate the Tomahawk today, and all of them use the naval version. Germany becomes the first foreign buyer of the ground-launched variant. According to The War Zone, the approval also indicates that the previously planned deployment of a US Army long-range fires battalion to Germany will not go ahead; in May, Washington had announced a reduction of its military presence in Germany by 5,000 soldiers. Merz said the purchase closes a strategic gap in German defense while Europe develops its own long-range systems. Germany is part of the European Long-Range Strike Approach alongside France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK, which aims for entry into service in the 2030s. Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, The War Zone.