Budget committee of the German Bundestag approved allocation of funds for the Taurus Neo cruise missile. It was included in a list of 30 defense projects to which a total of about €50 billion is being directed. A contract for serial production preparation, component procurement and further development was received by Taurus Systems GmbH, which is a joint venture of MBDA Deutschland and Saab.
As Hartpunkt writes based on its own sources, the company will receive €450 million, of which €415 million will go to the production part of the task, with understanding that some components may be manufactured for 1-2 years. And €35 million for development.
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There is also mention that the Taurus Neo project will be joint and will be implemented under the aegis of OCCAR (European intergovernmental organization for joint cooperation in armaments). And this indicates that, most likely, obviously not only Germany, which is going to place them on Eurofighter, plans to be the customer of Taurus Neo.
At minimum, this could quite concern Sweden, which also participates in this development and although it planned to integrate existing Taurus under Gripen, it still hasn't done so. And currently these missiles should appear on version C/D in MS20 block 4 modernization, which will happen no earlier than 2028, and on the new E/F version in MS23 at the level of 2032.
And overall, demand for this missile, including exports, is expected at no less than 1,000 units. Of which 600 units is the expected Bundeswehr order for which €2.1 billion is planned to be allocated, meaning at a rate of €3.5 million per one Taurus Neo. In particular, besides logical Sweden, Spain has already announced interest in Taurus Neo.
And more potential customers may appear when exact missile characteristics are announced. Because the publication also indicates that Taurus Neo may have a range of about 1,000 km. And this will make it a very interesting competitor to the American AGM-158B JASSM-ER with a range of 900 km.
At the same time, Defense Express notes that both range and export capability very strongly depend on resolving the engine issue for this cruise missile. Especially since the decisionto replace the existing P8300-15 from American Williams on regular Taurus has supposedly already been made. And the supplier of the new engine should be German AeroDesignWorks GmbH, which will allow making Taurus Neo sovereign, at least in this component.
But one shouldnt forget about the timeline for implementing this program, because as they write in Germany, delivery of first Taurus Neo to the Bundeswehr may begin only in 2029. And it seems very much that such a timeline corresponds to reality, because if in 2026 they only begin procurement of components with delivery times of 2 years, meaning by the end of 2028, then another year will go precisely to testing and beginning serial production.
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