Berlin is reviving its bid to acquire American Tomahawk cruise missiles together with their Typhon ground-launchers, hoping to persuade the Trump administration to approve a sale that has been pending since July 2025, the Financial Times reports.
According to the publication, the move comes after the Pentagon scrapped plans to deploy a US long-range fires battalion to Germany this year, leaving a gap in Europe's deterrence against Russia.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is planning a trip to Washington to revive the purchase request, the FT reports, citing people with knowledge of the German government's strategy. The visit, however, depends on whether Pistorius can secure a meeting with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth — far from guaranteed, the people said, given the deterioration in relations between Donald Trump and Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the war in Iran.
"The key thing is to have the strike capabilities in Europe," a government insider told the FT.
Another person told the publication that Berlin might be prepared to pay extra to secure the deal. There may be a "temptation to throw money at the problem," the source said. Japan and the Netherlands are already awaiting delivery of their Tomahawk orders and facing delays.
Pentagon cancellation followed Trump-Merz rift over Iran
The transactional approach reflects the urgency in Berlin after the Pentagon last week reassigned the long-range fires battalion that had been due for deployment to Germany, according to the FT. The cancellation came on top of Trump's move to withdraw 5,000 US troops from the country, apparently in retaliation for Merz's sharp criticism of the US war on Iran.
The deployment plan, agreed under Joe Biden, had originally been presented as a response to Vladimir Putin's decision to station nuclear-capable Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad oblast, putting Berlin within their reach.
There are currently no European ground-launched long-range systems immediately available, the FT notes. The UK has submarine-launched Tomahawks with a 1,600 km range, while France has deployed a domestically built cruise missile with a 1,000 km range on its submarines.
Trump, who has repeatedly questioned his commitment to NATO, never formally recommitted to the planned deployment, the FT reports. The Iran war has also put pressure on US missile stockpiles.
Merz himself acknowledged the stockpile issue. Asked about the Tomahawks deployment on Sunday evening, he said the Americans "do not have enough for themselves right now."
Germany requested three launchers and 400 missiles
Pistorius announced on a visit to Washington in July 2025 that Germany had made an official request to buy Typhon missile launchers — a truck-borne container made by Lockheed Martin that can launch a variety of long-range weapons, including Tomahawks.
At the time, the Bundeswehr said acquiring the launchers and corresponding missiles would "significantly strengthen" Germany's capabilities for deep precision strikes. "It would clearly demonstrate to a potential aggressor that, in the event of an attack, their own command facilities, military airfields or launch sites for long-range missiles would not be safe from retaliation," it said.
Politico later reported, citing what it said was a leaked defence ministry planning document, that Berlin planned to buy three launch systems plus 400 Tomahawk Block VB missiles.
A German defence ministry spokesman told the FT on Monday that the purchase was "still planned" and that a preliminary enquiry had been made with the US government. He declined to say whether Washington had responded, describing it only as "an ongoing process."
The commercial track, he added, addressed "precisely the same capability that was intended to be stationed — and which, in all likelihood, still will be. After all, we are not talking about a final cancellation."
Carlo Masala, professor of international politics at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, was less optimistic. "It won't fly," he told the FT. Washington had given "no answer so far" to Germany's purchase request and was now even less likely to approve it after having "emptied its stocks against Iran," he said.
Other options under discussion, according to the FT, include accelerating the development of European long-range fire capabilities through Elsa, a joint programme involving Germany, France, Poland, the UK, Italy and Sweden. Berlin is also looking into how it could leverage Ukraine's own capabilities. None of these alternatives is available in the short term.
The Pentagon and the US defence secretary declined to comment.
Since taking office last year, Merz, a longtime Atlanticist, has pledged more than €750bn for Germany's armed forces and vowed to meet new NATO spending targets well ahead of schedule. Berlin has also overtaken Washington as the largest provider of military aid to Ukraine.
