Germany Wants American Tomahawk Cruise Missile Launchers Capable of Striking Moscow: Can Russia Stop Them?
North America, Western Europe and Oceania , Missile and Space
The German government has submitted a formal Letter of Request to the United States to procure the Typhon mobile missile system, as confirmed by German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius during an official visit to Washington. “The range of these weapons systems is significantly greater than what we currently have in Europe,” the minister stated, adding that “with them, Germany can increase its own defence capabilities and significantly improve its deterrent capability – but also that of Europe.” The planned procurement of the systems occurs at a time when Germany has played an increasingly assertive role within NATO both in Eastern Europe and beyond in the Pacific and the Middle East, while investing far more heavily in its armed forces. The Typhon system can employ both the Tomahawk cruise missile, which has a 1600 kilometre range, and the SM-6 multi-purpose missile which can be used for both ballistic missile defence and for medium-range anti shipping. The German Defence Ministry is reportedly primarily interest in the long range strike capabilities provided by the Tomahawk.
The Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile’s 1600 kilometre range allows Typhon units to strike targets in the Russian capital Moscow from German territory, with Russia considered the primary target of such a procurement plan. Germany’s offensive options against Russia have been expanded considerably, with the German Army on May 22 having inaugurated the 45th Armoured Brigade stationed in Vilnius, Lithuania. The unit is expected to provide an elite forward deployed mechanised warfare capability on the territory of the former USSR, located just 150 kilometres from the Belarusian capital Minsk, and less than 800 kilometres from Moscow.
The German Defence Ministry in early 2022 also selected the American F-35A stealth fighter to modernise its nuclear strike capabilities, as the country retains wartime access to American B61 nuclear warheads under a nuclear sharing agreement. Russia and Belarus are considered the primary potential targets of this improved nuclear strike capability, of the major new ground force procurements and deployments, and of the new mobile cruise missile launch vehicles being procured, ensuring that Berlin makes a far greater contribution to NATO’s collective military pressure on Moscow that was previously the case.
The Tomahawk cruise missile’s viability for strikes deep into Russian territory remains in question, as the subsonic Cold War era missile class was designed to rely on a terrain-hugging profile to avoid being locked onto at longer ranges. Modern Russian air defence systems, and the country’s fighter and interceptor aircraft such as the MiG-31BM, are considered highly capable of shooting down such targets over significant distances. The Russian Armed Forces reportedly gained access to an in tact Tomahawk cruise missile in 2018, after one of the missiles launched by the U.S. Navy against Syrian targets during an attack in April 2018 failed to explode. Speculated to have been brought down by electronic warfare, the missile was retrieved by the Syrian Arab Army and delivered to Russia for study. Retired Russian Armed Forces colonel Mikhail Khodarenok described the acquisition of the missile as “a textbook (example) on materials science, a textbook (example) on technologies falling from the skies,” noting that it was “a real gift for those structures of the Russian defence industry engaged in organising jamming; it will become clear how to disable the Tomahawk's communications system during combat operations.”
Commenting on Russia’s study of a Tomahawk missile in 2018, advisor to the first Deputy General Director of Russia's Concern Radio Electronic Technologies Vladimir Mikheev observed at the time: "On the basis of this experience (the Western Missile strike), technical tasks for new work are being prepared now. They will take into consideration all the information obtained to help us build prototypes of new electronic warfare systems… Having this missile in hand, we can clearly understand what channels of communication, information and control, navigation and range finding it has… And knowing all these parameters, we will be able to more effectively counter these cruise missiles at all stages of their combat deployment.” While the success of Russian efforts to develop countermeasures to the Tomahawk remains highly uncertain, there is a significant possibility that the Typhon system will become compatible with more capable cruise missile types, including hypersonic missiles, over its time in service, posing a significantly greater threat to Russia’s security.
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