I am just a layman as regards military hardware, but I will stick my neck out a bit to mention one aspect of the controversy in Germany over sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine that barely is mentioned in our media. We hear time and again that the issue is the range of these missiles, 500 km, which would give the Ukrainians the possibility of destroying the iconic Kerch (Crimea) bridge and attacking other targets way behind Russian lines with devastating effect. That, presumably, would lead to a further escalation from the Russian side, exposing German military production centers to attack.
However, at least in Russian media there is another issue: the Taurus are said to be nuclear enabled, meaning they could carry tactical nuclear weapons. If that is true, then incoming Taurus missiles could well prompt the Russians to ‘launch on warning’ a strategic nuclear attack on Germany, or on the USA as they may choose.
There are rumors in Germany that Scholz’s decision against sending the Taurus to Ukraine was advised by none other than Joe Biden. If so, then the possible nuclear boomerang described above could have been the argument which prevailed.
Postscript: A colleague in Germany has just provided ‘the missing link’ regarding the nuclear capability of the Taurus missile: https://www.sevimdagdelen.de/atomare-bestueckung-von-taurus-marschflugkoerpern/#:~:text=Ist%20der%20Bundesregierung%20bekannt%2C%20dass,dem%20Hintergrund%2C%20dass%20der%20Aufbau
In his words, the German government is not responding directly to the question because that would harm Germany in its possibilities for defense. But they don’t deny that the Taurus can be nuclear armed. As for NATO, they only pledge that they won’t put on nuclear warheads, which means that they could.
~ Gilbert Doctorow writes about International relations and Russian affairs.
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