Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced that Germany has struck a deal to buy US-made Tomahawk cruise missiles and station them in Germany.

Merz disclosed that the agreement on the long-range missiles, which are used to strike targets deep inside enemy territory, was reached this week on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.

Speaking to the German parliament after returning from the two-day summit, Merz said the results of this week’s NATO summit in Turkey “exceeded all of my expectations,” saying it had showed that the alliance was “united, strong and self-confident.”

“On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara we also agreed with the American government that Tomahawk missiles would be purchased by us and stationed in Germany.

“With this we are closing an important strategic gap in our defense. And at the same time we will work on developing our own European systems and deploying them in Europe.”
Friedrich Merz

The deal struck with the Trump administration amounts to broader export of US know-how to some of its major allies in Europe, whose security posture has been upended by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The Tomahawk cruise missile has been in the U.S. military’s inventory since the 1980s. While slow by missile standards, it flies around 100 feet (about 30 meters) off the ground, making it harder to detect by defense systems.

The Tomahawk has a range of around 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) and precision guidance systems that make it the go-to weapon for striking targets that are deep inland or in hostile territory.

The deal centers a US commitment to give Germany approval in August to procure an undisclosed number of Tomahawks and corresponding ground-based Typhoon launchers. Deployment of US personnel to operate the systems was not part of the letter of intent signed on Tuesday that underpins the agreement. Successive German governments have been seeking such a deal since 2023.

Merz also touted the deal reached this week to sell TKMS submarines to Canada as the largest military contract in modern German history. He said that agreements such as these “make it clear to me that NATO is, and remains, a trans-Atlantic alliance.” “But we as Europeans are also strong, and we have understood that we cannot simply outsource our security,” he told the chamber in Berlin.

Merz Touts Government’s Record

Moreover, Merz touted his government’s record. As well as a string of domestic and economic priorities like planned income tax and pension reforms working their way through parliament, he listed a final goal as moving toward “a future where our country is not susceptible to blackmail, but rather can confidently meet every threat posed to our free way of life using its own strength.”

The Christian Democrat Chancellor tried to drum up support for his coalition’s package of summer reforms in various areas, like pensions, welfare, health care and income tax. “These agreements aim above all for more flexibility for our businesses, for the preservation of our welfare state, for tax relief for workers,” Merz said.

His coalition agreed last week on a 34-point reform package that it is now trying to move through parliament. He alluded to one such step scheduled for Friday in both houses of parliament. “Tomorrow, or so I hope at least, we in the Bundestag and Bundesrat will put statutory health insurance on a new and financially sustainable foundation,” he said, as politicians from the opposition Greens and the Left Party and one from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) move to try to halt the vote via an injunction from the Constitutional Court.

Merz also argued that this flurry of plans, some of them hard-wrought internally within his coalition, served as evidence that “the center delivers.” He said, in what seemed a jab aimed in particular at the right-wing populist AfD, that too often of late he had heard claims about the political center failing to deliver and getting in its own way. “Let me respond as clearly as possible: The center delivers and above all it fulfills the task entrusted to it by law,” Merz said.

He stated that there was no shortage across Europe of radical forces claiming to offer simple solutions, also in Germany but said, “we are strong enough to collectively dispel these attacks on our freedom and the stability of our country.”

He argued that the proposals of radical parties, whether on the left or the right, were not constructive. “They divide our country and, if they were to take over political responsibility in Germany, would lead it into the abyss,” Merz said.