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Europe relies heavily on U.S. for long-range missiles

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Russia has used long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine

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U.S. set to deploy long-range missiles on European soil

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Agreement was reached under Biden administration

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Berlin seeks clarity on whether deployment will go ahead

By Sabine Siebold

BERLIN, July 11 (Reuters) - NATO will need more

long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from

attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase

production of long-range weapons, a U.S. Army general told

Reuters.

Russia's effective use of long-range missiles in its war in

Ukraine has convinced Western military officials of their

importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and

missile launchers far behind enemy lines.

"The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they

started the war in Ukraine," Major General John Rafferty said in

an interview at a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany.

"And we know that they're going to continue to invest in

long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences.

So more alliance capability is really, really important."

The war in Ukraine has underscored Europe's heavy dependence

on the United States to provide long-range missiles, with Kyiv

seeking to strengthen its air defences.

Rafferty recently completed an assignment as commander of

the U.S. Army's 56th Artillery Command in the German town of

Mainz-Kastel, which is preparing for temporary deployments of

long-range U.S. missiles on European soil from 2026.

At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on

Monday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is expected to

try to clarify whether such deployments, agreed between Berlin

and Washington when Joe Biden was president, will go ahead now

that Donald Trump is back in the White House.

The agreement foresaw the deployment of systems including

Tomahawk missiles with a range of 1,800 km and the developmental

hypersonic weapon Dark Eagle with a range of around 3,000 km.

Russia has criticised the planned deployment of longer-range

U.S. missiles in Germany as a serious threat to its national

security. It has dismissed NATO concerns that it could attack an

alliance member and cited concerns about NATO expansion as one

of its reasons for invading Ukraine in 2022.

EUROPEAN PLANS

Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at Oslo

University who specialises in missiles, estimated that the U.S.

provides some 90% of NATO's long-range missile capabilities.

"Long-range strike capabilities are crucial in modern

warfare," he said. "You really, really don't want to be caught

in a position like Ukraine (without such weapons) in the first

year (of the war). That puts you at an immediate disadvantage."

Aware of this vulnerability, European countries in NATO have

agreed to increase defence spending under pressure from Trump.

Some European countries have their own long-range missiles

but their number and range are limited. U.S. missiles can strike

targets at a distance of several thousand km.

Europe's air-launched cruise missiles, such as the British

Storm Shadow, the French Scalp and the German Taurus, have a

range of several hundred km. France's sea-launched Missile de

Croisiere Naval (MdCN) can travel more than 1,000 km.

They are all built by European arms maker

MBDA which has branches in Britain,

France, Germany and Italy.

France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Sweden are now

participating in a programme to acquire long-range,

ground-launched conventional missiles known as the European

Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA).

As part of the program, Britain and Germany announced in

mid-May that they would start work on the development of a

missile with a range of over 2,000 km.

(Editing by Timothy Heritage)