Germany is set to host American long-range missiles on its soil, Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirmed, in a move that reshapes the security architecture of Europe.
The deployment traces back to a commitment made during the Biden administration in 2024, when Washington pledged to station Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany as part of a broader effort to deter Russian aggression following the invasion of Ukraine.
A complicated deployment
The path to actually getting these missiles on German soil has been anything but smooth. Earlier this year, Merz himself acknowledged that the US lacked sufficient Tomahawk stockpiles to fulfill the deployment, citing ongoing military commitments related to Ukraine and Iran that had stretched American inventories thin.
“The Americans don’t have enough for themselves right now,” Merz said at the time, noting there was “virtually no possibility” for near-term delivery.
