German Bundestag again refuses to transfer Taurus missiles to Ukraine
14 March 2024 16:57
Members of the German parliament did not support a resolution approving the transfer of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. Out of 573 deputies, only 31 voted in favour, while 538 were against, Komersant ukrainskyi 
citing Bild.
The resolution to provide Ukraine with Taurus was proposed by the opposition CDU/CSU bloc, but the coalition rejected it again. At the same time, the German newspaper reports that the debate on this issue was as emotional as it was a few days earlier, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz mysteriously spilled the beans about some secret information that was important in making a decision on Taurus missiles. At the time, he addressed MP Norbert Röttgen with the following words:
“What annoys me, dear MP, dear Norbert, is that you know everything, but you speak publicly based on the fact that your knowledge is not public knowledge.”
The official position of Chancellor Scholz and the German authorities is that the transfer of Taurus to Ukraine would mean Germany’s involvement in the war, as the use of missiles is allegedly impossible without their maintenance by German military specialists. At the same time, he once said that he did not give missiles because they could reach Moscow“if used incorrectly”.
Taurus
The Taurus is a German-Swedish long-range air-to-surface cruise missile designed for precision strikes and hard-to-reach targets and does not require a carrier aircraft to be in the enemy’s air defence zone. The price of one Taurus missile is €950,000.
The Taurus missile is able to penetrate dense air defences as it flies at very low altitudes and follows the terrain.
A special feature of the missile is its warhead, which uses a concrete-piercing MEPHISTO warhead to destroy fortified targets.
Taurus missiles are in service with Germany, Spain and South Korea.
Main characteristics:
- launch weight – 1360 kg;
- warhead – 481 kg;
- length – 5.1 m
- fuselage width – 1.08 m;
- launch range – approximately 500 km;
- flight speed – subsonic, up to Mach 0.95, i.e. up to 1000 km/h;
- engine – Williams WJ38-15 Turofan.
