report<\/a> by German Foreign Policy, calls to accelerate the development of indigenous German missiles capable of reaching Moscow are intensifying following Trump\u2019s declaration that he will no longer deploy intermediate-range weapons to the country. Late last week, the US President indicated that he intended to withdraw 5,000 US troops from Europe and cancel the long-planned deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles.<\/p>\nThe move is being interpreted as a punitive measure in response to critical statements made by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz regarding the US administration\u2019s strategy toward Iran. German officials warn that the absence of intermediate-range weapons will prevent the neutralization of Russian command centers in the event of conflict, creating a critical gap in the defense plans of Germany and other European nations. Consequently, the development of Germany\u2019s own intermediate-range weapons, with a range exceeding 2,000 kilometers, must now be accelerated beyond the original timeline.<\/p>\n
Criticism of Trump\u2019s decision has also emerged from within the US military establishment. Officials have pointed out that the move weakens the infrastructure the US military relies on for global operations, such as the Ramstein Air Base.<\/p>\n
US plans for withdrawal from Germany<\/p>\n
As announced over the weekend, US President Donald Trump plans to withdraw approximately 5,000 US troops from Germany. Currently, more than 36,000 US military personnel are stationed in Germany, making the country the largest US military hub in Europe and the second largest worldwide after Japan, which hosts 55,000 personnel.<\/p>\n
In total, there are just over 85,000 US troops deployed across Europe, including more than 12,500 in Italy and slightly over 10,000 in the United Kingdom. In December, the US Congress passed legislation stipulating that the number of US military personnel permanently stationed in Europe must not fall below 76,000 for more than 45 days. Any deviation from this rule requires the US Secretary of Defense and the Commander-in-Chief of US Forces in Europe to provide a comprehensive justification to Congress.<\/p>\n
Observers believe the specific plan involves withdrawing an entire US combat brigade that former President Joe Biden had deployed to Germany for rotational exercises in response to the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, Trump intends to cancel the deployment of US intermediate-range weapons to Germany, including Tomahawk cruise missiles originally scheduled for this year, without proposing a replacement.<\/p>\n
Merz\u2019s stance on Iran \u201cpunished\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is presenting this withdrawal, in part, as a punitive measure against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his comments on the conflict with Iran. Early last week, Merz stated that the Trump administration had entered the conflict \u201cclearly without any strategy\u201d and was \u201cclearly not following a truly convincing strategy in negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump subsequently launched a sharp verbal attack on Merz. He has now added the troop reduction announcement to his previous threat to increase tariffs on European automobiles to 25%.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Trump has repeatedly confirmed his general intention to reduce the US military footprint in Europe and announced the first concrete measures regarding Romania in October. Accordingly, a combat brigade that had been rotationally deployed for military exercises following the start of the war in Ukraine was withdrawn at the end of the year without a replacement unit. The stated justification was that US troops were primarily needed elsewhere, specifically in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, which are the focal points of the new US National Security Strategy.<\/p>\n
Part of US global war logistics<\/p>\n
Serious dissatisfaction with the decision has been voiced in the US, including among Republicans. For instance, the Republican chairs of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees noted that Germany provides the US military not only with overflight rights for the Iran conflict but, more importantly, with unrestricted use of US military bases in Germany, including Ramstein.<\/p>\n
According to these officials, \u201cpunishing\u201d Germany now would send a risky signal. They argued that Ramstein, along with other US military facilities in Germany such as the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, are indispensable components of global US military infrastructure. Without these facilities, they contend, wars\u2014particularly those in the Middle East\u2014could not be conducted as they have been. Furthermore, these sites provide US forces with an \u201calternative route\u201d to the Asia-Pacific region if necessary.<\/p>\n
Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former commander of US Army Europe, has stated that US troops in Germany and Europe \u201care not there to protect the Germans.\u201d According to Hodges, American soldiers are in Germany \u201cfor the US,\u201d not for the Germans. Therefore, any withdrawal from the country would primarily weaken US military logistics.<\/p>\n
Disabling command centers<\/p>\n
In Berlin, Trump\u2019s announcement to cancel the 2024 agreement for the deployment of US intermediate-range weapons in Germany has caused particular concern. Initially, the deployment of such weapons, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, was planned as a means of applying military pressure on Russia. Officially, this was intended as a temporary solution for several years until Germany and other European countries developed their own intermediate-range weapons capable of reaching Moscow.<\/p>\n
That temporary solution is now likely off the table. According to Christian M\u00f6lling, former deputy director of research at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and founder of the new think tank Edina (European Defense in a New Age), intermediate-range weapons were classified as \u201ccentral elements\u201d of rearmament against Russia, intended to make it possible to \u201cdestroy Russian command centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moscow within reach: Calls to accelerate the ELSA project<\/p>\n
Calls to accelerate the ELSA project as much as possible are growing in Berlin. ELSA (European Long-Range Strike Approach) was launched by Germany, France, Italy, and Poland in July 2024 on the sidelines of the NATO anniversary summit in Washington. The project aims to develop and produce cruise missiles or hypersonic missiles with a range of at least 2,000 kilometers.<\/p>\n
The goal was to be able to replace the aforementioned US intermediate-range weapons with indigenous missiles by the early 2030s. In mid-February, the defense ministers of the four founding countries, together with the defense ministers of the United Kingdom and Sweden, signed a memorandum of understanding to further formalize the joint venture.<\/p>\n
In the long term, this initiative is intended to help Germany and Europe become militarily independent of the US. However, it remains unclear how the gap created by the non-deployment of US intermediate-range weapons will be bridged before the first European missiles are completed. According to reports, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is in talks with the Trump administration regarding the delivery of US-made Typhon missile launchers, which are capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that he is abandoning plans to station Tomahawk missiles in Germany has triggered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9468,18,419,9469,8976,479,9470,9471,393,5,475,9472,9473,478,8675,1831,8343,9285,8978,9474,92,8824],"class_list":{"0":"post-10395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-ben-hodges","9":"tag-berlin","10":"tag-boris-pistorius","11":"tag-christian-molling","12":"tag-defense-policy","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-elsa-project","15":"tag-european-long-range-strike-approach","16":"tag-friedrich-merz","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-headline","19":"tag-intermediate-range-weapons","20":"tag-iran-strategy","21":"tag-nato","22":"tag-ramstein-air-base","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-tariffs","25":"tag-tomahawk-missiles","26":"tag-troop-withdrawal","27":"tag-typhon-launchers","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-us-army-europe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}