“[My time at ACA] prepared me very well for the position that I took following that with the State Department, where I then implemented and helped to implement many of the policies that we tried to promote.”
Intermediate-range Missile Deployment in Doubt
June 2026
By Xiaodon Liang
The U.S. Army will not deploy an intermediate-range ground-launched missile unit to Germany, reversing a commitment made in July 2024 to reassure European allies following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The decision came after a public display of acrimony between U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, sparked by Merz’s criticism of the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran.
“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany,” Trump announced in an April 29 social media post.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed May 1 that 5,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Germany over the next six to 12 months. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth subsequently decided that the missile unit would not deploy and that a rotation of a 4,700-strong armored brigade combat team to Poland, the Baltic states, and Romania would be canceled as well, CNN reported May 14.
The long-range missile unit would have accounted for the deployment of roughly 500 soldiers to Germany, according to CNN. The Department of Defense has not yet announced the withdrawal of any other troops in Germany.
Under the 2024 plan announced by the United States and Germany at that year’s NATO summit, the missile unit would have begun a rotational presence this year. (See ACT, September 2024).
The army stood up the relevant unit last October as the 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment. A Dec. 15 announcement regarding the unit noted that it would contribute to the “expansion of long-range fires capability in the European Theater.”
The battalion, based out of Fort Drum, New York, will be equipped with the intermediate-range Tomahawk land-attack and anti-ship cruise missile, the SM-6 multi-purpose strike and air defense missile, and, once production ramps up, the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon.
The army had said earlier this spring that it expected a first complete set of the new hypersonic missile to be delivered imminently to a sister battalion assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. A Pentagon official said the weapon has now reached initial operational capacity, Fox News Digital reported April 30.
The Tomahawk-equipped battery, known as the mid-range capability, of a third long-range battalion test-fired a Tomahawk May 5 at a target 600 kilometers away as part of an exercise in the Philippines. The battery was first deployed to the Philippines in April 2024. (See ACT, May 2024).
Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said in a May 12 interview with broadcaster ZDF that his government had inquired about purchasing Tomahawk missiles from the United States a year and a half ago,but was still awaiting approval from Washington. (See ACT, September 2025).
The decision to cancel the armored brigade combat team deployment, the latest in a series of rotations by U.S. troops on NATO’s eastern flank that the Biden administration began in 2022, was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats during a May 15 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, acting chief of staff of the Army, confirmed during the hearing that the brigade combat team would not deploy.
The move by Hegseth is a “slap in the face to Poland. It’s a slap in the face to our Baltic friends,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.). Bacon said Polish officials called his office May 14 seeking to confirm the CNN story, suggesting that the NATO ally had been caught off guard by the report.
According to the Army Times, which first reported the cancellation of the rotation May 13, portions of the unit are already in Poland and equipment was enroute.
LaNeve was not asked to comment on and did not confirm the cancellation of the missile unit deployment.