What is needed to make Taurus 'game changer' for Ukraine

Defense Express writes about it.

"Surprisingly enough, in their current state, Taurus really cannot become a game changer. And not only because they have not yet been transferred, but because the actual lifespan of these missiles that can be transferred to the Armed Forces is not impressive. It is worth recalling that retired colonel and Bundestag member Roderich Kiesewetter said in May of this year that only 150 Taurus missiles out of 600 that were ordered are in flying condition," Defense Express notes.

“And it is unlikely that out of the 150 cruise missiles for the Bundeswehr, which are all air-launched cruise missiles in Germany, a significant share can be transferred to Ukraine. As for the resumption of missile production, this is a rather significant issue, because the German part of the MDBA has already reported that it will take one year to resume missile production, and it may take longer because there may be problems with the supply of electronics and explosives. This means that there is no current mass production of missile components, and it is far from clear that it is possible to restore all the remaining 450 missiles,” the report states.

To this should be added the timeframe that MBDA Deutschland announced when it came to the possibility of integrating the Taurus under the wing of the Su-24M or F-16. The Soviet machine takes 2 months and 4 months to train the personnel who will be using the missiles. For the F-16, it takes 1.5 years. By the way, the integration of this missile under the Eurofighter, which was commissioned in 2005, will last until 2028.

Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Defense Ministry, said that the conditional 100 missiles would not change the situation and that hundreds of ATACMS were needed. And as for Taurus, there cannot be hundreds of them, because there are 150 of them in combat condition.

“Finally, if we look at MBDA Deutschland's product assets, we can see that it has developed and produced some really interesting things. For example, the JFS-M project, a cruise stealth missile to be launched from HIMARS, but with a production horizon of no earlier than 2025, which means mass production closer to the late 20s,” Defense Express explains.

And the Brimstone is one of the mass-produced weapons already used by the Armed Forces. But the need for this anti-tank missile, which has an excellent ability to destroy targets outside the line of sight (NLOS), is measured not in hundreds but in thousands of units.

Defense Express states that It is the number of units combined with the capabilities of the weapon that allows us to say that a certain type of weapon and military equipment can become a "game changer."