Germany requests US long-range weapons as bridge to European tech

COLOGNE, Germany — The German government this week notified Pentagon leaders of an interest to buy the U.S. Army’s Typhon missile launcher system, which can fire missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers, while a European initiative to make such weapons continues to ripen.

Interest in the Lockheed Martin-made launcher comes as defense officials in Berlin await a final call by the Trump administration to honor a Biden-era agreement under which American missiles are to bolster Germany’s deterrence posture starting in 2026.

Those long-range fires capabilities, launched via Typhon, are to include SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles , plus “developmental hypersonic weapons,” said a July 2024 German-U.S. statement, released on the sidelines of NATO’s 75-year anniversary summit in Washington.

Boris Pistorius, speaking to reporters in Washington on July 14, said missile-stationing plan’s fate was still iffy, as U.S. defense leaders re-assess the American military footprint in Europe.

“I’m very confident that the announcement will remain in place,” he said following a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “But a final decision is still outstanding.”

In that context, Berlin’s interest in Typhon could be seen as a gesture to keep the long-range strike plan, devised as a conventional counterstrike option in the event of a Russian attack, on track in the first place.

Either way, European nations currently lack the weapons range that Typhon would bring to the continent, according to Pistorius.

Countries have banded together to develop such weapons under the European Long-range Strike Approach, or ELSA, but those capabilities will take seven to 10 years to field, he said.

Sebastian Sprenger is associate editor for Europe at Defense News, reporting on the state of the defense market in the region, and on U.S.-Europe cooperation and multi-national investments in defense and global security. Previously he served as managing editor for Defense News. He is based in Cologne, Germany.

德国科隆——本周，德国政府通知五角大楼领导人，德国有意购买美国陆军的“台风”导弹发射系统，该系统可发射射程达 2000 公里的导弹。与此同时，欧洲一项制造此类武器的计划也在不断完善。

人们对洛克希德·马丁公司制造的发射器产生了兴趣，与此同时，柏林的国防官员们正在等待特朗普政府的最终决定，以履行拜登时代的一项协议，根据该协议，美国导弹将从 2026 年开始加强德国的威慑态势。

2024 年 7 月，在华盛顿举行的北约成立 75 周年峰会期间，德美两国发表声明称，通过“台风”导弹发射的远程火力将包括 SM-6 和“战斧”导弹，以及“正在研发的高超音速武器”。

7月14日，鲍里斯·皮斯托里乌斯在华盛顿对记者表示，导弹部署计划的命运仍然不明朗，因为美国国防领导人正在重新评估美国在欧洲的军事存在。

“我非常有信心这项声明会继续有效，”他在与美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯会面后表示，“但最终决定尚未做出。”

从这个角度来看，柏林对 Typhon 的兴趣可以被视为一种姿态，旨在确保远程打击计划（最初是作为应对俄罗斯攻击的常规反击选项而制定的）能够按计划进行。

无论如何，根据皮斯托瑞斯的说法，欧洲各国目前缺乏泰丰能够带给欧洲大陆的武器范围。

他说，各国已联合起来，根据欧洲远程打击方案（ELSA）开发此类武器，但这些能力需要 7 到 10 年才能部署。

塞巴斯蒂安·斯普伦格是《防务新闻》欧洲版副主编，负责报道该地区的防务市场状况，以及美欧在防务和全球安全领域的合作和多国投资。此前，他曾担任《防务新闻》执行主编。他现居德国科隆。