The deployment of US cruise missiles in Germany has sparked a call for public debate by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. This marks the first such debate since the end of the Cold War. Russia has warned that it will take countermeasures if this move is implemented.
At a NATO summit in July, Washington and Berlin announced their plans to deploy long-range missiles from the US Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany starting from 2026. These missiles include SM-6 anti-air missiles with a range of up to 460km (290 miles), Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking targets more than 2,500km away, and newly developed hypersonic rockets.
The deployment would have been prohibited under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which the US withdrew from during Donald Trump’s administration in 2019 due to alleged Russian violations. However, Russia denied these allegations and continued to follow the treaty until recently.
In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Sunday, Pistorius emphasized the importance of a public discussion regarding the arrival of US long-range missiles in Germany. He stated that such a debate is crucial for society to develop a consensus on how to address this issue.
The German defense minister explained that the deployment aims to counter the increased threat posed by Russia’s aggressive actions while addressing the capability gap in Europe until these weapons can be developed independently. However, Pistorius acknowledged that there has been strong opposition from some members of his own Social Democratic party regarding the missile deployment.
In response to these plans, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during a speech at the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg last month that if the US proceeds with such deployments, Russia will consider itself free from its previously adopted moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range strike weapons. Furthermore, Putin promised to take “mirror measures,” noting that the flight time for these missiles would be around ten minutes, putting multiple critical Russian state and military facilities at risk.