Citing US and European officials, the outlet said the decision to shelve the deployment – originally agreed in 2024 – reflects broader strategic concerns, not only recent tensions between Washington and Berlin.
“US officials fear Moscow will retaliate if the Trump administration follows through on the effort to deploy precision missiles in the middle of the continent,” the report said. It noted that American officials are also concerned about shrinking US missile stockpiles, which have been heavily depleted by the ongoing war with Iran.
The Trump administration first disclosed last month that it had shelved the long-range missile plans after a public rift between President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran conflict. Merz openly criticized Trump for lacking a clear strategy to resolve the war.
Trump subsequently announced the withdrawal of 5,000 US troops from Germany. Pentagon officials later confirmed that the long-range fires battalion, which the previous administration had scheduled for deployment later this year, would not proceed.
The original plan to deploy US Tomahawk missiles in Germany was announced in summer 2024 after an agreement between then‑Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then‑President Joe Biden. The plan envisioned deploying conventional Tomahawk cruise missiles – capable of striking targets more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away – to counter Russia’s deployment of Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, which can reach Western European capitals within minutes.