Following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would no longer station long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany, the German government, along with other NATO partners, is working on new solutions to ensure continued security across the European continent.
According to reports citing various informed diplomats from the EU and NATO, a new plan is being examined: establishing a joint venture between German and American companies that could potentially begin producing Tomahawk missiles in Germany as early as 2028. A precedent for this is the existing partnership between the German firm MBDA (based in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria) and the US defense contractor RTX, which is set to manufacture vital PAC-2-GEM-T missiles for the Patriot system in a critical joint effort for NATO.
In parallel, the German government is also investigating the procurement of advanced Turkish missile systems to protect European NATO states. These include the Yildirimhan intercontinental missile, with a range of up to 6,000 kilometers, and the hypersonic long-range rocket, Tayfun-Block-4. Informational sources suggest that the Yildirimhan missile could be delivered as early as 2028, followed shortly thereafter by the Tayfun-Block-4.
However, the funding for these proposed weapons acquisitions from Turkey is unlikely to come from the EU defense program SAFE, due to expected resistance from Cyprus and Greece-both nations maintain particularly strained relations with Turkey. Within NATO circles, two primary financial models are being considered: either a bilateral agreement between Germany and Turkey, or the formation of a smaller European coalition, spearheaded by Berlin, that could jointly finance the purchases. Should this occur, Germany would bear the highest costs. No final decisions have been reached regarding either the joint venture or the procurement of Turkish weaponry. If a positive decision is made, the purchase of the Turkish missile systems could be announced around the NATO summit in Ankara this July.
The focus on coordinated defense is part of a broader effort. In the summer of 2024, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom signed a letter of intent to produce conventional weapon systems with a range exceeding 2,000 kilometers as a deterrent against Russia. Prime Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) recently affirmed that the government is working daily to boost Germany’s defense capabilities and maintaining active dialogue with allies in the US. Similarly, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) acknowledged that while Germany sought to buy Tomahawks from Washington 18 months ago, he does not hold high hopes for acquiring the missiles given the current global climate.
In unrelated security updates, reports indicate that a significant portion of the US troops withdrawing from the large American air hub at Ramstein (Rhineland-Palatinate) will be deployed to the Mihail Kogalniceanu (MK) airbase near Constanta in eastern Romania. Temporarily, US forces will relocate from Ramstein to this base, which is located close to the Ukrainian border. Sources confirm that the Romanian base, which is jointly occupied by Romanian and US Army Garrison Black Sea forces, is slated for expansion in the coming years to become one of NATO’s largest air bases, accommodating at least 10,000 US soldiers and their families, making it larger than Ramstein itself. These diplomatic channels confirm that the movement of troops out of Germany and into Romania “makes absolute sense given the threat posed by Russia”. A second contingent of the troops being drawn down from Germany is planned to be deployed outside of Europe. It remains unclear whether the approximately 5,000 soldiers withdrawn from Germany will first be returned to the US in full strength for a specific period, or if they will be redistributed immediately within and outside of Europe.
