Following discussions ahead of the 9-11 July 2024 NATO summit in Washington, DC, Germany has agreed to accept the presence of conventionally armed long-range US missiles on its territory.
A joint statement issued by the two countries on 10 July read as follows:
“The United States will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future. When fully developed, these conventional long-range fires units will include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe. Exercising these advanced capabilities will demonstrate the United States’ commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence.”
Deployment of US long-range missiles in Europe was facilitated by withdrawal of the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty on 2 August 2019, citing Russian non-compliance and the fact that China was not a signatory.
The 1987 INF Treaty had required the United States and the Soviet Union to eliminate and permanently forswear all of their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500-5,500 km. By the treaty’s implementation deadline of 1 June 1991, it had led both countries to destroy a total of 2,692 short-, medium-, and intermediate-range missiles, including 72 Pershing 1a and 108 Pershing II theatre ballistic missiles and 48 cruise missiles deployed in what was then West Germany.
Of the missiles now to be deployed in Germany mentioned in the joint statement, the SM-6 is primarily a surface-to-air missile/anti-ballistic missile but also has a surface attack capability. In November 2020 the US Army selected both the SM-6 and the Tomahawk cruise missile – US Navy weapons –to be integrated into its vehicle-based Mid-Range Capability.
The “developmental hypersonic weapons” mentioned by the joint statement probably refer to the US Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), which the army calls Dark Eagle. This system’s entry into service has been interrupted by test flight delays, but on 28 June 2024 the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced that an end-to-end flight test of the system from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands had recently been successfully completed.
