In Schrobenhausen, Bavaria, the residents of the town have been asked to vacate their homes on three consecutive weekdays so that hypersonic glide vehicles can be launched from the surrounding fields toward a practice target placed 2,500 kilometres away on the Atlantic coast. The defence contractor MBDA has informed the local council that the schedule cannot move, because the vehicles must fly at more than ten times the speed of sound and must be seen to do so.
MBDA managing director Thomas Gottschild has stated that deterrence now requires that every hinterland in Europe be treated as a reachable target. "We must be able to strike logistics chains and command centres deep behind the lines, so we have decided to rehearse that in full view of the neighbours," he said. Workshops that once produced ordinary machine parts have been converted to build smaller launch canisters, and the town's bakery has begun supplying the engineers with breakfast at six in the morning.
The Ministry of Defence has announced that the new Black Cap cruise missile, which carries standard 155-millimetre artillery shells the length of a drone's flight, will be taught in every municipal fire brigade. Firefighters in the district have been issued sandbags and instructed to walk the hedgerows each evening, counting the shells that have landed in their gardens. Local schools now open an hour later so that children can watch the morning test firings from the playground.