The United States will deploy ground-based Tomahawk missile systems in Germany that will be capable of reaching Moscow. The Russian moratorium has been ignored, and Germany needs to prepare for nuclear war.
The United States and Germany have agreed to place "long-range American weapons” at German military bases, according to a joint statement released from the governments of the two countries.
Beginning in 2026, they will deploy "standard missiles-6” (SM-6), Tomahawk nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres, and more powerful hypersonic weapons that still remain under development.
US President Joe Biden said that the allies were taking steps "to strengthen defense against Russia”:
The move has been brewing since the Pentagon opened the 2nd Multidomain Task Force at Wiesbaden in 2021 and reactivated the 56th Ordnance Command. From 1963 to 1991, this unit commanded battalions armed with Pershing and Pershing II nuclear ballistic missiles.
This decision came as a surprise for the Germans. Germany's ZDF TV channel said that the decision could be reversed should Republican Donald Trump win the upcoming US elections. During his time as president Trump did initiate a reduction in the US military presence in Germany.
Yet, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius believes that this cannot happen. On the contrary, the United States expects Germany to invest in the development and purchase of such counter-attack weapons, Pistorius said on Deutschlandfunk on July 11.
Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the Union of Her Name, said that Germany may thus become a theater of war "with terrible consequences for everyone who lives here."
"This madness must finally be stopped. We need a federal government that represents the existential interests of our country rather than the wishes of the United States as Washington will not be directly affected by the consequences of a major European war,” she said in an interview with Der Spiegel.
Moscow announced a moratorium on the deployment of such missiles on its territory after the termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty). Yet, the decision that the US and Germany announced did not come as a surprise to Russia.
In late June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia should resume the production of intermediate- and shorter-range nuclear-capable missiles after the United States did the same and brought those missiles to Denmark and even to the Philippines.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday, July 11, that the nature of the Russian reaction "will be determined in a calm, professional manner.”
"The military, without a doubt, has already taken this message into account,” Ryabkov noted.
According to him, the Americans already have ground-based versions of the sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missile and the air-launched SM-6 missile.
Ground-launched missiles with a flight range of more than 500 kilometers were banned until 2019. In 2019, the United States pulled out from the INF Treaty and said that Moscow was allegedly violating the agreement citing Russia's development of the 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile, known as the SSC-8. Moscow accused the United States of undermining the security system in Europe and suspended the treaty.