HomeNewsUkraine demands Taurus cruise missile from Germany
Russia-attacked Ukraine wants Germany to deliver Taurus cruise missile quickly. It fits perfectly on the F16 fighter planes.
Combat aircraft such as the Bundeswehr Tornado here are equipped with Taurus cruise missiles.Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
According to a newspaper report, Ukraine has asked Germany for the delivery of the German Taurus cruise missile. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper reports, the Federal Ministry of Defense confirmed the request from Ukraine.
According to the FAS, a spokesman for the federal government did not want to comment on whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj personally addressed this request to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), which information from the newspaper suggested.
Cruise missiles find their targets independently and can avoid radar
Taurus cruise missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers. They are dropped from fighter planes and find their targets on their own. The missile can fly under radar. It is considered an effective weapon against protected targets such as command bunkers or ammunition depots.
In a conversation with the FAS, the foreign politicians Roderich Kiesewetter (CDU) and Michael Roth (SPD), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, advocated that Germany actively supports the deliveries of F16 fighter jets by the USA to Ukraine, for example through training. According to Kiesewetter, Berlin could contribute to the armament of the F-16 through Taurus. Experts assured him that it was not „rocket science“ to adapt the German cruise missile to the American F-16.
Roth and Kiesewetter justified their claim with the significant losses suffered by the Ukrainian air force since the beginning of the Russian invasion. The newspaper cites US information that Ukraine had already lost 60 of its 145 combat aircraft earlier this year.