Pentagon Set to Cancel the Tomahawk Deployment to Germany

The deployment, agreed by Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz in July 2024, would have rotated SM-6, Tomahawk and developmental hypersonic weapons through Germany from 2026 — the first US ground-based intermediate-range missiles in Europe since the Cold War. Two European officials and one American told Politico it is now expected to be scrapped. The sourcing puts escalation first: US officials fear Moscow would retaliate against precision missiles based in the middle of the continent.

The stockpile runs second but is the more structural cause. Thousands of Tomahawk and Patriot rounds were expended in the opening weeks of the Iran war, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Congress that replacement will take “months and years,” with shortfalls expected to persist toward 2031. A capability the United States does not have enough of cannot be forward-deployed to reassure an ally.

The proprietary read. This is the US subtraction from Europe acquiring another line item, and the most telling kind — not a drawdown of legacy presence but the cancellation of a promised future capability. Berlin was counting on the American deep-strike bridge while it built its own; the bridge is being withdrawn before the European replacement exists, the same gap the cancelled long-range-fires battalion and the broader Force Model cuts have opened elsewhere. The Tomahawk reversal turns the German deep-strike question from “when does the US bridge arrive” to “what fills the hole it leaves.” Tracked in Signal No. 76.