Europe Seeks Medium-Range Missile Response

January/February 2026
By Xiaodon Liang and Naomi Satoh

France has become the latest European nation to inaugurate a new medium-range missile program in response to rising fears of a conflict with Russia, the widespread use of long-range strike missiles in the Ukraine conflict, and—more recently—concern about the reliability of U.S. commitments to defend NATO allies.

After a group of European NATO states agreed in July 2024 to form a European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) consortium to jointly develop missiles with ranges up to 2000 kilometers, several prospective medium-range projects have emerged. (See ACT, September 2024.)

France is taking the first steps toward acquiring a ground-launched medium-range ballistic missile that meets the ELSA range requirement, allocating 15.6 million euros toward initial risk analysis in the 2026 budget of the government of French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. The budget plan, released in October but not yet passed into law, foresees an initial commitment of 1 billion euros over the next few years.

The missile will likely enter service around 2030, a report of the national defense and armed forces committee of the French National Assembly indicated in April. It is one of two exploratory French programs, the second being a range-extended version of a sea-launched land-attack cruise missile with an original design range of 1,000 kilometers. The parliamentary report noted that the French military had a preference for the ballistic option and a target range of more than 2,000 kilometers.

Germany and the United Kingdom also have announced plans to jointly develop a “new long-range strike capability with a range of over 2,000 km,” according to a May 15 press release. The missile, to be produced under the ELSA framework, will be “among the most advanced systems ever designed,” according to a July 17 statement by the UK embassy in Berlin. The partners aim to bring it into service “within a decade,” the embassy said.

Germany, meanwhile, is in talks with the United States to purchase ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of at least 1,600 kilometers. (See ACT, September 2025.)

These medium-range missiles would grant NATO states the capability to hold at risk Russian targets up to the Urals. European officials view these weapons as a conventional warfighting tool, not a “pre-nuclear capability for deterrence or escalation management,” according to the authors of a Nov. 13 report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a UK think tank.

But it is not only the traditional conventional military powers of Europe that are interested in longer-range strike capabilities. The Netherlands, another ELSA participant, is seeking a domestic version of the Tomahawk, challenging local firms to produce prototypes in six months, said Gijs Tuinman, junior defense minister in the Dutch government responsible for arms procurement, in an Nov. 20 interview with BNR Nieuwsradio.

Other members of the ELSA consortium include Italy, Poland, and Sweden.

Russian forces continue to launch medium-range missiles against Ukrainian targets as the full-scale invasion approaches its four-year mark. Between August and October, Russian forces fired 9M729 cruise missiles 23 times, according to an unnamed Ukrainian official cited in an Oct. 31 Reuters report.

The 9M729 missile, which has an estimated range of 2,500 kilometers, was the center of U.S. accusations of Russian noncompliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. (See ACT, January/February 2019.)

Russia also plans to deploy the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile on combat duty by the end of this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in Dec. 17 comments to defense ministry officials. The missile was first used in combat last November. (See ACT, December 2024.)

An Oreshnik-equipped Russian strategic rocket forces unit assumed duties in Belarus Dec. 30, according to a video from the Russian Ministry of Defense.