Defense

German defense ministry: No ‘definitive cancellation’ of US Tomahawk deployment

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by Ellen Mitchell - 05/04/26 7:10 PM ET

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by Ellen Mitchell - 05/04/26 7:10 PM ET

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Germany’s Federal Ministry of Defence said Monday that the U.S. had not yet canceled a Biden administration plan to deploy a battalion with long-range Tomahawk missiles to the country, a plan now under threat after President Trump’s recent clashes with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Berlin is “not talking about a definitive cancellation,” and the weapons meant to be stationed in Germany “may well still be,” a defense ministry spokesperson said, as reported by Reuters.

Trump late last week announced the U.S. would withdraw roughly 5,000 service members from Germany and threatened to pull more as he has publicly clashed with Merz and other European allies over their criticism of the U.S.’s military operations against Iran. The drawdown was widely seen to impact the planned deployment of Tomahawks.

Merz last week said that Iran was “humiliating” the U.S. with its control over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping corridor that has effectively been closed since the U.S.-Israeli war on Tehran began on Feb. 28. Washington, in turn, has imposed a naval blockade in the waterway, with the closure sending global energy prices soaring.

The long-range fires battalion to be deployed to Germany was meant to offer extra defenses and deterrence against Russia in the interim while European nations developed their own long-range missiles. The German spokesperson said that plans were already underway to fill that gap.

Trump’s decision has not been met with much fanfare among defense hawks in Congress, with the chairs of the House and Senate Armed Services committees condemning the decision in a joint statement released Saturday.

“Rather than withdrawing forces from the continent altogether, it is in the U.S. interest to maintain a strong deterrent in Europe by moving these 5,000 U.S. forces to the east,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said in the statement.

The chairs also said that “significant changes” like this to U.S. military operations require “a deliberate review process and close coordination with Congress and our allies.”

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