The German government had already tasked the manufacturer to check the possibility to limit the range, e.g. to be in line with the French and UK cruise missiles, as well as seeking options for firing the missiles, as Ukraine currently has no aircraft to launch them. The range seems to be an easy task, as it was reported a simple software update can do that. But I don't know how to solve the problem launching them or if there as been any statement yet.

Another recently published evaluation is, if sending Taurus alone is possible or if personnel has to be sent with them to enable Ukraine using them. As sending troops would be problematic.

Two days ago, the German MoD announced they need probably 1-2 weeks to have all information to make a decision. So not having Taurus in the current aid package from yesterday is obvious. We'll get a yes or no in 1-2 weeks.

[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The Gripen would be a compatible platform, assuming they might get them.
What I haven't heard yet is how many of them can be refurbished again though. Germany only has around 150 in an operable state.

[–] Chup@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Do you mean a different jet or country? As Sweden is currently checking if sending Gripen would be possible. But looking at Wikipedia operators, Germany never had any of those.

Germany has some older Tornado jets that can launch Taurus, but those are still needed for the US nuclear weapons and sending jets would be a whole new discussion.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

Those Tornados are barely hanging in the air as-is and spare parts are exceedingly hard to get you really don't want to expose them to war conditions. The ECR ones are getting replaced by (upgraded and/or new) Eurofighters ASAP, the rest are to drop nukes and thus really only have to fly once anyway (and will be replaced by F35 because Eurofighter doesn't want their secret sauce in US hands, which would be required to get US nukes certified, we might very well switch over to French nukes when it comes to nuclear sharing (While the French definitely aren't above a bit of industrial espionage they already know everything through Airbus etc. anyway)).

[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

No, I mean the Gripen. It's one of the tested compatible launch platforms for Taurus missiles and there's talks of sending them to Ukraine.

Tornados are garbage tier at this point and should rather sit in a museum. Absurdly expensive to maintain (200 hours of maintenance per 1 hour of flight) and required to uphold Germany's nuclear sharing program (they're the only nuclear carrier platform until the F35 arrive).