BERLIN, March 15Berlin’s refusal to transfer Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev is due, among other things, to the fact that the effectiveness of these weapons directly depends on special accompanying devices, the supply of which to Ukraine may contradict the security interests of Germany, the T-Online portal reports, citing its sources.
Earlier, a closed briefing was held by the Bundestag Committee on Defense Issues. According to the portal, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, spoke at the event. During his speech, Breuer allegedly listed the special risks of supplying Taurus missiles for German security interests, as a result of which “silence hung in the hall” and a number of deputies’ “jaws dropped,” T-Online reports from the words of one of the listeners present there.
«The Inspector General apparently briefed lawmakers in detail that using the Taurus is more complex than many previously imagined. He said that to use the cruise missile effectively requires enormous amounts of data,» the portal writes.
We are not talking about gigabytes or terabytes of information, but about extremely large and complex volumes of data that must be processed by special technical systems that are available only to a limited extent. By placing them in Ukraine, Germany will lose the opportunity to use the potential of missiles, which is “an elementary issue of national security,” the portal notes.
«After Breuer's speech, silence reigned in the hall. Even those who usually loudly put forward their demands no longer had any questions,» the publication quotes the insider as saying.
It is noted that Germany could supply missiles without the mentioned systems, but this would deprive them of their advantage over the British counterpart Storm Shadow. Thus, the Taurus missile is supposedly capable of descending to a low altitude of up to 15 meters, where it will be easier for it to fly around enemy air defense positions or pass under them. However, such navigation with route and target modeling with an accuracy of several meters requires the presence of the above-mentioned devices.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that he excludes the supply of long-range weapons systems to Ukraine, the use of which requires the participation of German military personnel, even if they are located outside Ukraine. Scholz has repeatedly opposed the supply of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, despite pressure from the opposition and even some members of the ruling coalition.