The United States will start deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to NATO and European defense, the United States and Germany said in a joint statement on Wednesday, Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

The United States' "episodic deployments" are in preparation for longer-term stationing of such capabilities that will include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons that have a longer range than current capabilities in Europe, the two countries said.

Ground-based missiles with a range exceeding 500 kilometres were banned until 2019 under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

It marked the first time the two superpowers had agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals and eliminated a whole category of weapons.

Falling in line with the signatories, Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic destroyed their missiles in the 1990s, to be followed later by Slovakia and Bulgaria.