BERLIN, April 20. /TASS/. Chief executive of the Airbus Defense and Space company (a division of Airbus) Michael Schollhorn has called into question German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s statements about the necessary presence of Bundeswehr military specialists on the ground for the possible use of Taurus cruise missiles in Ukraine if such are sent to Kiev.
"If they were willing to send [the missiles], they would have found technical solutions for the use of Taurus in Ukraine without German participation," Schollhorn said in an interview with Der Spiegel.
In his opinion, Scholz justifies the impossibility of providing Kiev with missiles from the political point of view.
"But I can comprehend the political arguments," the Airbus official added.
Schollhorn disagreed that sending the Taurus missiles to the UK so that it can provide Kiev with the British-made Storm Shadow missiles instead could not allegedly be implemented as the British Eurofighter fighters are incompatible with the Taurus missiles.
"Objection. The Eurofighter can carry the Taurus. Almost 10 years ago, Airbus first offered the Bundeswehr to carry the Taurus aboard the Eurofighter as well," he said, adding that the German authorities decided then that it was not necessary.
"Now I can assume that Eurofighter [fighters] will be licensed to be armed with Taurus [cruise missiles]," Schollhorn said.
Kiev has long been asking the German government to ship Taurus cruise missiles with a range of 500 km. Taurus cruise missiles have been compared to the UK’s Storm Shadow, which have already been given to Ukraine. However, the German-Swedish missiles have a slightly longer range - up to 500 kilometers. Scholz has repeatedly rejected the possibility of sending the Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. He said that German soldiers have to be engaged for the effective use of these missiles, and this is the red line he does not want to cross.