Germany is turning to Israel and Ukraine to potentially acquire the low-cost, long-range cruise missiles it needs to deter Russia, according to German defense ministry planning documents seen by POLITICO, which, along with Business Insider, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.
The push has taken on new urgency after US President Donald Trump decided not to deploy a unit of troops equipped with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Germany and Berlin's efforts to buy the missiles for itself remain open.
Now, the arms directorate in Germany's defense ministry is interested in smaller defense companies such as Ukraine's Fire Point and Israel's Covenant, according to industry and government officials familiar with the matter.
Two Ukrainian companies are in the running — a first for a major European defense contract — highlighting the technological leap in Kyiv's defense industry.
Berlin looks past the US
The outreach does not mean Germany is about to buy missiles from any of the companies. But it signals what Berlin is hunting for: cruise missiles cheap enough to buy in bulk, fast enough to field quickly and capable of putting Russian military targets at risk.
The planning documents show Germany is pursuing a four-track ground deep-strike plan.
The first track is to buy the US-made Typhon launcher, a ground-based system that can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, with an initial capability planned for 2029.
The second track is to buy low-cost cruise missiles, with an initial capability planned for 2027.
The other two tracks are longer-term European development projects: a high-end cruise missile with Britain planned for 2032, and a hypersonic glide vehicle, also with Britain, planned for 2035.
A diversified cruise missile arsenal would be a major shift in strategy for Germany.
Until now, Berlin relied heavily on Washington to provide the kind of long-range firepower needed to deter Russia. At the 2024 NATO summit, US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed that the United States would begin deploying long-range fires to Germany in 2026. The package was expected to include Tomahawk cruise missiles, SM-6 missiles and later hypersonic weapons under US command.
The idea was to give Europe time to develop its own long-range missile program.
But Trump's decision to halt that deployment after his pique at Chancellor Friedrich Merz's criticism of the war in Iran has upended that plan.
Germany is also trying to buy its own Tomhawks.
In July 2025, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius submitted a formal letter of request to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the Typhon system.
But the US Department of Defense is not expected to enter the formal sales process before mid-2026 because export policy has not yet been settled, according to one person familiar with Pentagon sales policy.
An Israeli startup catches Berlin's eye
The US war on Iran also depleted US stocks of Tomahawk missiles, with The Washington Post estimating that 850 were fired in the first weeks of the conflict — about a quarter of US overall stocks. The U.S. Navy is only set to receive 110 new missiles this year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
That's forcing Germany to hunt for alternatives.
According to multiple people familiar with the matter, the German defense ministry's procurement agency sent a request for product proposals to Covenant, a low-profile Israeli-American missile firm.
Company information reviewed by POLITICO describes Covenant as a US-Israeli-linked firm founded in 2024, with plans to build a sovereign European supply ecosystem and production lines in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Its investors include US venture capital firms Founders Fund, led by German-American tech investor Peter Thiel, and Addreesen Horowitz, led by US investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
Covenant's missile system, called Anthem, is expected to be tested in Israel in the third week of June, according to people familiar with the plans. German defense ministry officials have been invited to observe the test, the people said.
Covenant did not respond to a request for comment.
Ukraine's battle-tested missile options
Ukraine is the other major source of low-cost missile options Berlin is considering, industry and government officials told POLITICO.
The planning documents name two Ukraine-linked systems as candidates for Germany's low-cost cruise missile track: Flamingo, made by Ukrainian company Fire Point, and BARS, a mid-range missile-drone combination produced by an unnamed Ukrainian company.
Both systems are being looked at as part of an experimental study that could lead to a production contract if the weapons prove suitable, according to the documents.
Fire Point is already known in Berlin.
The company's FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile has a 3,000-kilometer range, a 1-ton warhead and is already hitting targets inside Russia.
Diehl Defence, the German maker of the IRIS-T air defense system, is in talks with Fire Point about possible joint production of the Flamingo in Germany, the Financial Times reported.
For Berlin, that is an attractive formula. Ukraine brings systems shaped by the war against Russia; a German partner can help with production, certification and the long road into Bundeswehr procurement. The Ukrainian missiles cost about $500,000 each — about a fifth of the cost of a Tomahawk, making them better suited to wars of attrition like the one Ukraine is waging against Russia.
Fire Point declined POLITICO's request for comment.
There are still hurdles. The planning documents note export restrictions around Fire Point's Flamingo, meaning the system would have to clear legal and political barriers before it could become part of a German procurement path.
Speaking at Eurosatory arms show in Paris on Wednesday, Fire Point CEO Iryna Terekh said Ukraine's missile progress came from "close cooperation between the defense manufacturers, between our end users, our army, and between our government." She said Kyiv had "removed a lot of bureaucracy," allowing companies to focus on "R&D and on development" rather than paperwork — a model that may be harder to replicate in German procurement.
But there is a broader logic.
Germany is not looking for one silver-bullet missile. Officials are studying a layered deep-strike arsenal: upgraded Taurus missiles — an already-deployed German-Swedish missile with a 500-km range, a future high-end cruise missile with Britain, possible hypersonic systems and cheaper weapons that could be bought in larger numbers.
Responding to POLITICO's request for comment, a defense ministry spokesperson said the war in Ukraine had shown that hitting strategic targets deep behind enemy lines had become "indispensable for credible deterrence."
"Cost-effective systems can overwhelm enemy air defenses through mass attacks and are therefore of high operational value," the spokesperson said. The ministry wants to expand the capability "as quickly as possible" and is monitoring the market, but declined to discuss specific procurement plans or companies.
For Germany, this is also about sovereignty.
The country will still try to buy US systems where it must. The planning documents still list Typhon and Tomahawk as one of the four main action lines in Germany's ground deep-strike plan. But the same documents also warn of the risks of relying too heavily on the United States — especially at a time when US missile stocks are under pressure and Washington's European posture is politically uncertain.
But the 2027 timeline pushed in the planning documents shows how urgent the problem has become.
Chris Lunday is a defense reporter for Politico Europe who is based in Berlin.
This story originally appeared on POLITICO and is courtesy of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, which harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces, and analysis. It allows journalists — including those from POLITICO, Business Insider, WELT, BILD, Onet, and Fakt — to collaborate on major stories for an international audience of hundreds of millions across platforms.
