In 2026, Germany is responding to a sudden shift in US policy by starting production of its own long‑range cruise missiles. Rheinmetall is teaming up with Dutch start‑up Destinus to launch production of the Ruta Block 2 missile by the end of 2026 or early 2027. The decision came after the Trump administration cancelled plans to deploy American Tomahawk missiles in Germany. The new missile has a range of over 700 kilometres and can carry a 250‑kilogram warhead.
For decades European NATO countries largely relied on American security guarantees for conventional deterrence, especially in the area of precision long‑range strikes. Western Europe does possess its own cruise missiles, such as the British‑French Storm Shadow and SCALP‑EG with a range of about 560 kilometres, the German Taurus KEPD‑350 with a range of about 500 kilometres, and the Italian Teseo, but none of these systems has been produced in quantities sufficient for a large‑scale war of attrition. The total stockpiles of all such missiles across Europe are many times smaller than those of the United States or Russia, and the ability to ramp up production quickly is constrained by a lack of adequate assembly lines.
This situation became increasingly alarming as the Russian threat grew, particularly after the full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when European leaders realised that in a conflict with Russia on NATO’s eastern flank the ability to strike targets deep inside enemy territory – ammunition depots, logistical hubs, command centres, airfields and air defence systems – is crucial for stopping an offensive, yet Europe suffers from a fundamental gap in this area.
In 2024 the administration of Joe Biden and the government of Olaf Scholz agreed on an interim solution, under which the United States was to deploy a battalion of Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of 1,500 to 2,500 kilometres in Germany by 2026, which was meant to fill the European gap until Europe itself could produce comparable systems. However that agreement was cancelled in 2026 by President Donald Trump, who decided to revise America’s military engagement in Europe, and Berlin was presented with a fait accompli, because the defence capability gap not only remained unfilled but widened.
The decision of the Trump administration to withdraw from the plans to deploy a Tomahawk battalion in Germany was confirmed in early May 2026, and those plans had originally been agreed in 2024 by President Joe Biden and then Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with the aim not only of strengthening NATO’s eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression but above all of providing Europe with a temporary security buffer before the continent could produce its own long‑range weapon systems. American Tomahawk missiles, with a range enabling strikes deep into Russian territory, were intended to be a key element of deterrence and to close the existing capability gap that Germans call Fähigkeitslücke.
Cancellation of the Tomahawks as a catalyst for European change
Donald Trump’s decision to cancel the agreement, according to media reports, is linked to a broader review of America’s European commitments, and the US administration has announced that the battalion intended for Tomahawk deployment will not be sent. Although the German Defence Ministry initially denied the reports and stressed that there was no final decision yet to cancel the deployment, Chancellor Friedrich Merz eventually confirmed that the United States had withdrawn from the agreement, and the Pentagon has said the battalion will not be deployed, while official diplomatic channels remain silent on the reasons.
According to German security experts, the decision is a significant blow to NATO’s eastern flank, because Nico Lange, a security expert, stated that Russia has missiles in Kaliningrad that threaten Europe and that Germany lacks adequate missiles to build a countermeasure, adding that those missiles were wanted from America but are now not forthcoming. After the refusal to deploy, the Berlin government took diplomatic steps to persuade the US to sell Tomahawk missiles together with the land‑based Typhon launcher system, and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius plans to travel to Washington to revive the purchase offer made in July 2025.
So far, however, the United States has not responded to the German request, and Pistorius’s visit remains uncertain because of strained relations between President Trump and Chancellor Merz over the conflict with Iran. Moreover, US production capacity is also limited, because the Department of Defence has announced an extension of the contract with Raytheon for Tomahawk production, but American stockpiles have been reduced as a result of the war with Iran, and in the face of these adversities Germany has accelerated its own projects.
Rheinmetall and Destinus form a joint venture of a new era for missile production
In response to the new geopolitical situation, German defence contractor Rheinmetall announced in April 2026 the creation of a joint venture with Dutch start‑up Destinus, and the new enterprise named Rheinmetall Destinus Strike Systems, or RDSS, will be based in Unterlüß in Lower Saxony, at Rheinmetall’s existing production facilities. Rheinmetall will take 51 percent of the new entity while Destinus will retain 49 percent, and the transaction is subject to regulatory approval, but the partners expect it to be finalised in the second half of 2026.
The structure of the joint venture reflects a clear division of roles designed to combine the strengths of a large, established manufacturer with the flexibility and innovativeness of a start‑up, because Rheinmetall brings to the partnership its considerable production capabilities, experience in large‑scale defence programmes and its established position as Germany’s largest arms producer. Destinus in turn offers its battle‑proven system architecture, product design and an already running serial production programme, and the company, founded in 2021 in Switzerland and now based in the Netherlands, focuses on military drones and cruise missiles, possessing its own established serial production programme in Europe, currently producing more than 2,000 cruise missile systems per year.
Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall, directly linked the creation of the joint venture to the need to strengthen Europe’s industrial base, and Mikhail Kokorich, co‑founder and CEO of Destinus, stressed that Europe is entering a new phase of missile production scaling, where the main constraint is no longer demand but production capacity. The joint venture will focus on the production, assembly, testing and delivery of advanced cruise missile and ballistic rocket artillery systems, mainly for European and NATO allied customers.
Ruta Block 2 as the heart of the project
The main product of the new joint venture is to be the Ruta Block 2 autonomous medium‑range cruise missile, developed by Destinus as an evolution of an older version already used by Ukraine, and the missile was presented in January 2026 and has since undergone a series of tests, including tests of the automatic wing‑deployment system in flight, which increase its range and payload. The Ruta Block 2 missile has a range exceeding 700 kilometres and can carry a warhead weighing 250 kilograms, and is designed for precision strikes against high‑value stationary targets such as fortified structures, armoured vehicles or troop concentrations.
One of its key features is an advanced guidance system based on artificial intelligence, because the seeker has an electro‑optical and infrared sensor with AI algorithms for target recognition, allowing effective operation in electronic warfare environments and without GPS signal. Additionally, the missile is designed for low‑altitude flight, terrain‑following, which makes it harder to detect and shoot down by air defence systems, and according to available information the Ruta Block 2 is also compatible with allied launchers and can operate in swarms, meaning the ability for coordinated attack of multiple missiles on a single target.
Compared to the first version of the Ruta, the Block 2 version offers significantly increased range from about 450 kilometres to over 700 kilometres and a larger useful payload from 150 kilograms to 250 kilograms, and three different types of warheads have been developed, namely high‑explosive, penetrating and hybrid, with missile production scheduled to start by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
In parallel with preparations for cruise missile production, Rheinmetall is consistently investing in increasing its production capacity in other areas, and in August 2025 the company opened in Unterlüß Europe’s largest ammunition factory, which is ultimately to produce 350,000 rounds of ammunition per year, and it is located on the same Rheinmetall site where the new assembly line for Ruta Block 2 missiles will be built as part of the joint venture with Destinus. From 2026 the factory is also to produce rocket artillery, complementing the RDSS offering, and Rheinmetall is also implementing plans to increase artillery shell production at its Ukrainian plant, where output is ultimately to reach 300,000 shells per year by 2026.
Consolidation of the German defence industry through the NVL shipyard takeover
Rheinmetall’s industrial ambitions, however, extend far beyond ammunition and missile production, because in March 2026 the company finalised the takeover of Naval Vessels Lürssen, the military part of the renowned Lürssen shipyard in Bremen, and the transaction was finalised on 1 March 2026 after obtaining all necessary antitrust approvals.
The takeover was a strategic move that dramatically expanded Rheinmetall’s portfolio and strengthened its position in the naval sector, because after the NVL acquisition Rheinmetall became a German system house for the development and production of modern warships and coastal autonomous systems, gaining the ability to design and build surface ships, including frigates, corvettes and patrol vessels. CEO Armin Papperger stressed that the goal is to transform Rheinmetall into a multi‑domain defence solutions provider, operating on land, water, air and space, and the takeover is also relevant for the new RDSS joint venture, because it creates the possibility of integrating Ruta Block 2 cruise missiles with warships built by Rheinmetall’s new naval division.
Rheinmetall’s order book after the NVL takeover rose to a record 73 billion euros in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 56 billion euros a year earlier, with 5.5 billion euros coming from the new naval division. Although Rheinmetall’s financial results for the first quarter of 2026 slightly missed analysts’ expectations, the company confirmed optimistic forecasts for the full year, predicting that in 2026 its revenues will grow by 40 to 45 percent, reaching sales of over 14 billion euros, which represents significant growth momentum compared with approximately 10 billion euros in revenue in 2025.
CEO Armin Papperger expressed confidence that the company is on track to achieve these ambitious targets, expecting stronger sales growth and order intake in the second quarter, and the record order book testifies to huge demand for the equipment and ammunition produced by Rheinmetall, driven by the sharp increase in European defence spending in response to Russian aggression and by Germany’s decision to create a special fund for the modernisation of the Bundeswehr.
Further European initiatives
The Berlin government is not remaining passive in the face of the capability gap that has just opened after the Trump administration’s decision, because Germany together with European partners is pursuing a number of initiatives aimed at both temporary and long‑term filling of the strike capability gap. One of them is the plan to restart production of the Taurus cruise missile in a modernised Neo version, under which MBDA Deutschland and Swedish Saab are to jointly produce a large number of these missiles with a range of about 500 kilometres, carried by Luftwaffe aircraft, but as military experts stress, the currently available stock of about 600 Taurus missiles is insufficient, and in March 2024 only half of them were fully operational.
Far more ambitious and long‑term is the European ELSA programme, the European Long‑Range Strike Approach, which involves Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and the aim of the programme is to develop a new generation of long‑range missiles characterised by low observability, the ability to defeat advanced air defence systems and a range significantly exceeding 1,000 kilometres.
This programme aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on American technology and create independent deterrent capabilities, but because of its complex nature and the need to agree common operational requirements among several countries it is a long‑term project, with the first systems under ELSA possibly entering service in the next decade. Therefore interim solutions such as the Ruta Block 2 missiles produced by Rheinmetall and Destinus are crucial for bridging the gap in the coming few years.
Another initiative involving Poland is a programme to develop a cheap, lightweight long‑range missile, under which countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Italy plan to jointly develop and launch production of such a missile, and this project, while less ambitious than ELSA, envisions rapid introduction into service of a relatively inexpensive system that could be produced in large numbers and used to engage targets at medium ranges of about 500 kilometres. This is another example of European countries trying to diversify their efforts and seek multiple complementary solutions rather than a single ideal system.
Strategic significance and implications for European security
The decision to create the Rheinmetall Destinus Strike Systems joint venture is not merely another defence contract, because it represents a symbolic turning point in European security policy, marking the end of an era of unconditional reliance on American guarantees and the beginning of building autonomous deterrent capabilities.
For Germany, which for years was seen as reluctant to embrace militarisation and dependent on the American protective umbrella, the production of its own long‑range cruise missiles is a breakthrough of historic significance, because Rheinmetall’s action, combined with the takeover of the NVL shipyard and other investments, transforms the German defence giant into a truly multi‑domain military technology provider capable of competing with global players such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon or MBDA. In May 2025 Rheinmetall announced the creation of a joint venture with American Lockheed Martin to produce ATACMS and Patriot PAC‑3 missiles in Germany, and under that cooperation missile engine production is to start in 2026, which indicates that Rheinmetall is not only responding to current demand but actively shaping a new, diversified landscape for the European defence industry.
For the European defence market this means increased competition, diversification of supply sources and, most importantly, the gradual reduction of the strategic long‑range strike capability gap that for years was one of the main weak points of European security. The Trump administration’s decision, although unfavourable for NATO in the short term, has become a catalyst that has forced Europe to take responsibility for its own defence, and the new production capabilities of Rheinmetall and Destinus, together with other European initiatives such as Taurus Neo and ELSA, will make it possible gradually to fill the gap that just a few years ago seemed impossible to close without American support.
