The UK and France are already using the support in the counteroffensive in Ukraine.
The United States also plans to announce support for ATACMS soon.
The longest range is 500km… Ultra-precise, state-of-the-art missile
The New York Times reported on the 6th (local time) that pressure is growing on Ukraine to support Germany’s long-range air-to-ground missile Taurus.
France and the United Kingdom have already provided their own long-range missiles to Ukraine, which the Ukrainian military is using in counteroffensive warfare, and the United States is also expected to soon announce support for ATACMS surface-to-air missiles with a range of 300 km, which it has so far refused to support.
Accordingly, pressure is growing on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to support the country’s Taurus missiles.
“Chancellor Scholz is under great pressure and will make a decision soon,” said Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, head of the German Bundestag’s defense committee. He added, “But it will be after the United States supports ATACMS.”
A German government spokesman said on the 5th that Chancellor Scholz had not changed his stance that no decision had been made on whether to support Taurus last month.
Throughout last year, the German government waited for the United States to announce support for the same type of weapons before deciding to support its own weapons.
Prime Minister Scholz, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, has also been hesitant to provide support, conscious of the growing opposition to support from far-right populists spreading across European countries.
The German government has also expressed concern that Russia will reverse engineer the Taurus missile and create a counter-weapon.
The name of the Taurus missile is an abbreviation for Target Adaptive Unitary and Dispenser Robotic Ubiquity System, and its range is 500 km, about 200 km longer than the US ATACMS. It has a much longer range than the Stormshadow and Scalp missiles provided to Ukraine by the UK and France.
If the Taurus missile, developed in the early 2000s, is supported to Ukraine, it will be the most recent long-range missile. It is so accurate that it can fly low to avoid radar detection and hit specific floors of buildings. Experts believe that Germany will be able to support about 150 of the 600 missiles it has right away.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said last month that support for Taurus missiles was “only a matter of time.” German Green Party lawmaker Anto Hoffreiter said on the 5th that Chancellor Scholz’s hesitation in providing support was “boosting Putin’s confidence that he can win the war” and “this is a really wrong signal.”
Source: Donga