Overview
- Reporting based on internal defence documents shows a multi‑phase draft budget of roughly €12 billion to build a conventional long‑range strike force for Germany.
- The programme mixes three tracks: inexpensive mass‑produced cruise missiles for rapid deployment, interim US Typhon launchers to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles by about 2030, and an Anglo‑German co‑developed high‑end cruise missile and hypersonic glider under the Trinity House framework.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz has publicly said Berlin reached an agreement with Washington to acquire Typhon/Tomahawk capability, but the defence ministry has not confirmed the financial figures and the Bundestag has not approved the budget.
- Internal cost estimates place about €9 billion on the German‑British development and acquisition work and the remainder on cheaper cruise missiles and sustainment, with candidate low‑cost systems named in the documents as Anthem, BARS and Flamingo.
- Officials justify the shift by citing lessons from the Ukraine war and warnings from the German army chief that Russia could gain the ability to attack a NATO country before 2030, which could reshape NATO deterrence, procurement choices and export and legal oversight in Berlin.