Germany is finally admitting what should have been obvious in 2022: you don't deter an empire that dreams in maps by waving polite sanctions and hoping for the best. According to documents obtained by POLITICO, Berlin now plans to spend nearly 12 billion euros building a proper long-range arsenal, with the goal of striking deep into an enemy's rear while staying below the nuclear threshold. NATO is conducting a concrete operation, the direct result of watching Moscow's hybrid war, missile barrages, and nuclear blackmail for four straight years.
The Four-Part Procurement Plan
The plan breaks into four parts. First samples arrive next year. A cheap mass-producible cruise missile enters service in 2027. Germany is already negotiating contracts with two of three candidates: the Anthem from American-Israeli startup Covenant Industries and Ukraine's BARS offering. The third, Flamingo from Fire Point, is also in the mix.
Berlin explicitly calls this low-cost option economically smart. It is suitable for mass production to complement more expensive systems. The part worth watching is here. Ukraine has been iterating on exactly this class of weapon under fire for years. If German procurement people are serious about scale and speed, they should treat Ukrainian industry as a capable partner. They should start treating it as the combat-proven partner it actually is.
Bridging the Gap with American Hardware
Separately, Chancellor Merz announced a deal to buy American Tomahawks and install Typhon launchers on German soil by the end of the decade. Good. Proven American hardware bridges the gap until the joint UK-German high-end cruise missile and hypersonic program reaches its mid-2030s initial capability. That program's ranges exceed 2000 km.
The bulk of the money, almost 9 billion euros plus maintenance, goes to that high-end effort. Another 1.8 billion is earmarked for the cheaper cruise missiles.
The Failure of Appeasement
Credible conventional deterrence finally takes shape after years of pretending sanctions alone would collapse the Russian economy. After years of pretending Putin would magically become reasonable. Moscow's missile production is strained but still dangerous. Their Iskander and S-400 stocks are being burned faster than replenished. Yet they keep hitting civilian targets in Zaporizhzhia and Odesa while screaming about red lines. Every time a Western capital delayed long-range deliveries, Russian logistics stayed safe. Ukrainian cities paid the price.
Deterrence requires a credible strategy and real capability. It is range, quantity, and the demonstrated will to use both.
Germany is now investing in exactly that because the alternative has already been tested and failed. That alternative is continued appeasement dressed up as "de-escalation." Ukraine has been carrying the burden of that failure on its front lines. It has done so while building its own deep-strike capacity under constant attack.
Directionally Correct, Still Partial
Berlin's move is overdue, expensive, and still only partial. It is directionally correct. The faster these systems reach operational units, the sooner Moscow learns that its rear areas have become targetable. And the more Ukraine is integrated into that production and doctrinal loop, the stronger the entire eastern flank becomes.
A practical act of support. It is collective defense against the one state that keeps proving it respects only force. The imperial project in the Kremlin understands power. Time for Europe to speak that language fluently.
