Speaking at the Eurosatory arms show in Paris on Wednesday, Fire Point CEO Iryna Terekh said Ukraine’s missile progress came from “close cooperation between the defense manufacturers, between our end users, our army, and between our government.” She said Kyiv had “removed a lot of bureaucracy,” allowing companies to focus on “R&D and on development” rather than paperwork — a model that may be harder to replicate in German procurement.

But there is a broader logic.

Germany is not looking for one silver-bullet missile. Officials are studying a layered deep-strike arsenal: upgraded Taurus missiles — an already-deployed German-Swedish missile with a 500-km range, a future high-end cruise missile with Britain, possible hypersonic systems and cheaper weapons that could be bought in larger numbers.

Responding to POLITICO’s request for comment, a German defense ministry spokesperson said the war in Ukraine had shown that hitting strategic targets deep behind enemy lines had become “indispensable for credible deterrence.”

“Cost-effective systems can overwhelm enemy air defenses through mass attacks and are therefore of high operational value,” the spokesperson said. The ministry wants to expand the capability “as quickly as possible” and is monitoring the market, but declined to discuss specific procurement plans or companies.

For Germany, this is also about sovereignty.

The country will still try to buy U.S. systems where it must. The planning documents still list Typhon and Tomahawk as one of the four main action lines in Germany’s ground deep-strike plan. But the same documents also warn of the risks of relying too heavily on the United States — especially at a time when U.S. missile stocks are under pressure and Washington’s European posture is politically uncertain.

But the 2027 timeline pushed in the planning documents shows how urgent the problem has become.