Germany Buys Ukraine 100s Of Ukrainian Made Long Range Drones, Cruise Missiles

In a clever work-around to help project Ukrainian power deeper and faster into Russia, Germany is financing the production of Ukrainian made cruise missiles and long range drones. This approach is needed because the US can no longer be relied upon to supply Ukraine with weapons and Europe is not yet capable of producing missiles and drones of this quantity and quality. 

So instead, Germany is investing in Ukrainian production of missiles and drones. Ukraine has the knowledge, designs and production capability but not the financial wherewithal. This agreement means that Ukraine will produce the weapons and Germany will pay for them which will result in deliveries within weeks rather than waiting months or years for foreign made weapons. And that also means Russia will start to feel the results within weeks. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art and Volodymyr Ivanyshyn reports :

Germany is arming Ukraine with a huge arsenal of deep-strike munitions, including a long-range drone and a new cruise missile - investing in Ukraine’s best attack drone—the Ukroboronprom An-196 Liutyi (“Furious”)—as well as its first mass-producible cruise missile, the Bars (“Leopard”). In underwriting Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike threat, Germany is helping Ukraine do to Russia what Russia has been doing to Ukraine: disrupt Russian command, logistics and production where the Russians are most vulnerable—at home. Under a German-financed agreement, Ukraine will receive hundreds of domestically produced long-range weapon systems by the end of July

Germany is arming Ukraine with a huge arsenal of deep-strike munitions, including a long-range drone and a new cruise missile.

In the span of two weeks, the German government signaled huge, and separate, investments in Ukraine’s best attack drone—the Ukroboronprom An-196 Liutyi (“Furious”)—as well as its first mass-producible cruise missile, apparently the Bars (“Leopard”).

Once deliveries begin, Ukrainian forces should be capable of striking Russian targets as far away as 500 miles, and with a range of effects. The drones would fly slower and may carry a lighter, 110-pound warhead. The missiles should fly faster and hit harder with a heavier warhead weighing perhaps twice as much.

In underwriting Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike complex, Germany is helping Ukraine do to Russia what Russia has been doing to Ukraine throughout its 41-month wider war on the country: disrupt Russian command, logistics and production where the Russians are most vulnerable—at home. 

"Ukraine will be much better positioned and use these systems and get the support of us with regard to those systems in the weeks and months to come," Merz said.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius previously said Berlin will not supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, but will provide Kyiv with Patriot air defense systems purchased from the U.S. Kyiv has long sought the long-range missile as Russia continues to wage its war.

The Taurus missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of 500 kilometers (300 miles) — a range greater than other long-range weapons Ukraine has received from allies.

On July 9, Merz promised further assistance to Kyiv, noting that diplomatic means for resolving the Russia-Ukraine war "have been exhausted."

"When a criminal regime openly questions another country’s right to exist with military force and sets out to destroy the political order of freedom on the entire European continent, the federal government I lead will do everything in its power to prevent this," he said.

Under a German-financed agreement, Ukraine will receive hundreds of domestically produced long-range weapon systems by the end of July, German Major General Christian Freuding said on July 11.

The U.S. has also promised to supply Kyiv with Patriot air defense systems in a new deal brokered by NATO.