Merz announces Tomahawk purchase for Germany

Berlin (dpa, d.de) – In his statement delivered after the NATO summit in Ankara, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Germany would be buying Tomahawk medium-range missiles from the US. He stated that Germany and the USA had agreed on this transaction. “We are doing this to close a key strategic gap in our defence system,” Merz said in the Bundestag. He added that Germany would also be developing its own long-distance weapons systems, together with European partners.

The Tomahawk cruise missiles have a range of up to 2,500 kilometres and are to be stationed in Germany in the future. Back in 2024, the USA had initially announced plans to station its own medium-distance weapons. As the new US government did not pursue this endeavour further, the two sides now agreed that Germany will be buying the systems.

Merz also mentioned that Germany had doubled its defence spending since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. A total of EUR 124 billion was earmarked for this purpose for 2026, he said. Russia remained a “serious threat” to Europe’s security, Merz stressed.

The Federal Chancellor also summarised the results of the NATO summit in Ankara. At the summit, the member states confirmed their commitment to supporting Ukraine and agreed that Europe should assume greater responsibility within the Alliance. In addition to acquiring American systems, Germany also plans to further promote the development of European capacities in the area of long-distance precision weapons. To this end, a number of NATO states are involved in the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) project that is dedicated to developing a cruise missile with a range of over 2,000 kilometres.