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U.S. bares plan to deploy previously banned missiles to Germany

By richardbrown // 2024-07-15

The U.S. has announced its plans to deploy missiles in Germany that would have been banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, from which the U.S. withdrew in 2019. The INF Treaty prohibited land-based missile systems with ranges between 310 and 3,400 miles. The upcoming deployment to Germany will include a land-based version of nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 miles and are primarily used by U.S. Navy ships and submarines. (Related: Germany wants NATO to take down Russian missiles and drones hovering in Ukrainian airspace.) "The U.S. will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026, as part of planning for the enduring stationing of these capabilities in the future," Washington and Berlin stated in a joint release during the NATO summit in Washington. "When fully developed, these conventional long-range fire units will include SM-6, Tomahawk and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe." The U.S. is expected to deploy a Typhon launcher, a covert system hidden in a 40-foot shipping container capable of firing Tomahawks and SM-6 missiles. The SM-6 can hit targets up to 290 miles away, which falls below the range previously banned by the INF Treaty. Washington has previously used Typhon launchers for military exercises in the Philippines and Denmark. The announcement of regular deployment to Germany follows Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement that Moscow should develop weapons previously banned by the INF, in response to U.S. actions. Upon withdrawing from the INF treaty, the U.S. accused Russia of violating the agreement by developing the ground-launched 9M729 cruise missile. Russian officials denied the violation, claiming the missile has a maximum range of 298 miles. Moscow also accused the U.S. of potentially violating the INF by establishing Aegis Ashore missile defense systems in Romania and Poland, which use Mk-41 vertical launchers capable of fitting Tomahawk missiles. The U.S. refused to negotiate with Russia on these issues and the Trump administration subsequently exited the treaty. It was evident the U.S. left the treaty to deploy intermediate-range missiles near China, prompting Russia to propose a moratorium on the deployment of INF missiles in Europe, which the U.S. never accepted.

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