During July’s Nato summit, the United States and Germany reached an agreement for the US to start what it referred to as “episodic deployments” of missiles in 2026. This will include Tomahawk cruise missiles, SM-6 ballistic missiles and a new generation of hypersonic systems currently under development. The main condition of the agreement is that none of these missiles will be equipped with nuclear warheads.
Russia responded by condemning the plan and hinting that it would consider deploying nuclear warheads to locations within range of western Europe. And according to the Financial Times, which has obtained a leak of classified Russian military domuments, Russia’s navy has been training to target sites across Europe as “far-flung as the west coast of France and Barrow-in-Furness in the UK”.
It’s an indication of the way in which military tensions have been rising, even before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
