During the NATO summit, the American and German governments issued a brief statement that, beginning in 2026, the U.S. “will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany...When fully developed, these conventional long-range fires units will…have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe.”
The announcement prompted an angry Russian response, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov assailing the plan as “deplorable…as it will have destructive consequences for regional security and strategic stability.” Ryabkov added that Russia had expected the announcement and that “the competent Russian agencies started their work on developing compensatory countermeasures well in advance and continue this work systematically.”
Russian military analysts have noted that it would be exceedingly difficult to distinguish between a conventionally armed missile and one carrying a nuclear warhead. The clear implication is that Russia might respond by deploying longer-range nuclear systems targeting Germany in particular. It is an implication made all the more credible given Vladimir’s Putin’s ongoing threats to resort to nuclear weapons if the West continues to supply increasingly more capable weapons systems to........