BERLIN, July 9 (Reuters) - Germany will purchase Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States and station them on German soil, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday, in a shift from planned U.S. deployments to Germany's own long-range strike capability.
Merz told lawmakers he had sealed the deal with the U.S. government on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara, adding that the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday had exceeded his expectations.
"We are closing a critical strategic gap in our defence, while simultaneously working to develop our own European systems and station them in Europe," he said.
According to German government sources, Washington committed to granting approval in August for Germany to procure Tomahawk missiles and corresponding ground-based Typhon launchers in a letter of intent signed on Tuesday.
The number of missiles and launchers Germany plans to acquire has not been disclosed as it is classified information.
The planned purchase appears to fit with U.S. President Donald Trump's push for European allies to pay for their own security, for example by buying U.S. weapons.
The fate of the Tomahawk supply had been unclear after Trump announced in May that he would reduce U.S. military presence in Germany.
That was seen as a cancellation of a plan under the previous administration to deploy a U.S. battalion equipped with long-range Tomahawk missiles to Germany.
It was intended as an interim solution that would serve as a powerful deterrent against Russia while Europeans developed their own version of such weapons.
Germany makes its own cruise missiles, the Taurus, but their range of around 500 km (311 miles) is three to five times shorter than the Tomahawks'.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Miranda Murray, Editing by Linda Pasquini and Andrei Khalip)
