FAZ: Germany, France, Italy and Poland want to develop long-range missiles
Four European NATO countries — Germany, France, Italy and Poland — wanted to develop new long-range cruise missiles.
According to a source in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( FAZ ), such missiles will be able to hit targets in Russia and fly to Moscow.
The new missile can become cruise or ballistic
The defense ministers of the four countries signed a declaration of intent on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington to develop such high-precision long-range weapons capable of accurately hitting targets, which is known as Deep Precision Strike. However, so far the document contains only general formulations and indicates only the intention to develop this type of weapon.
The declaration implies the creation of ground-based weapons with a range of more than a thousand kilometers. It can be either a cruise missile or a ballistic missile with the ability to develop supersonic speed.
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| Storm Shadow. |
| Source: Lewis Joly / AP |
At the same time, the German authorities expect that the United Kingdom will join the missile development project under the new government.
So far, the German Armed Forces have only the Taurus cruise missile, which is launched from fighter jets and can fly more than 500 kilometers.
France called the missile a deterrent
Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington after the signing of the declaration, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecorgne said that the new missile is designed to serve as a deterrent. According to him, the first draft of the weapon can be submitted by the end of the year, and the technical characteristics, including the flight range, will be worked out in more detail later.
"The idea is to make the development project as open as possible," he said, and suggested that the new UK Labour government could join the project. "It has value, including at the budgetary level, because it allows you to compensate for various expenses," Lecorny added.
An Airbus subsidiary may be involved in the development
An unnamed military source told Reuters that the new missile could have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers to meet NATO requirements.
France has proposed to create it based on a modification of its MdCN (Missile de Croisiere Naval) cruise missile, produced by the European defense company MBDA, which also produces Taurus, Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles. MBDA is owned by Airbus.
Reuters points out that the development of a missile with a range of more than 500 kilometers means that European NATO allies will actually re-launch a category of weapons prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
The United States will deploy long-range weapons in Germany in 2026
Earlier it became known that the United States plans to begin deploying long-range weapons in Germany in 2026 in order to "demonstrate Washington's commitment to NATO to European countries." The weapons will include the SM-6, Tomahawk and hypersonic weapons under development.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Moscow would respond to the deployment of missiles in a military manner. He stressed that the reaction of the Russian side in this case would be "professionally calm." The diplomat expressed confidence that the country's Defense Ministry has already taken this threat into account.
