Germany will buy 35 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets to replace its aging Tornado jet fleet, which are the warplanes Berlin can use to deliver US nuclear warheads that are stored in the country.
Germany stores about 20 US B-61 nuclear gravity bombs as part of a NATO nuclear sharing agreement. “After looking thoroughly into all available options, I decided to initiate the purchase of F-35 aircraft as replacement for the Tornado in the role of nuclear sharing,” German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Monday.
Germany has been planning to phase out the Tornado fighters between 2025 and 2030, which are the only warplanes Berlin currently has that are capable of carrying the US nukes. The F-35s are expected to take over the nuclear sharing mission by 2030.
NATO was concerned that Germany’s new coalition government might not want to keep hosting the US nukes based on previous statements from party leaders. The concern prompted NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to warn that NATO would move its nuclear warheads further east if they were no longer in Germany, and the new government eventually agreed to keep housing the weapons.
The decision to buy the F-35s is the first planned arms deal announced by Germany’s government since Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a 100-billion-euro upgrade to the military in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Shafting the FCAS developmnet – yeah that’s really going to help Europe…
They probably can’t really afford it.
Nor can they afford to buy the equivalent of a flying Edsel. The Russians would be just rubbing their hands together at the prospect of coming up against the most expensive and ineffective jet fighter ever!
The F-35 was designed as a bomber to compliment the F-22 Raptor.
The ‘fighter’ part was just tacked on to attract pilots who might otherwise be turned off by flying a bomb truck.
It should work well in its true role as a stealth bomber, not so well as a fighter.
The F-35 probably needs too much time in the shop to be truly effective in a real war against a peer opponent, though.
This is one of the benefits of the American Industrial Complex .
America in, Germany down, Russia out, check-check and check…
So now that the USA has managed to persuade the “independent, sovereign state ” of Germany to change all its policies, to increase weapons, to arming others, cutting off essential gas to German industry because it comes from Russia as arranged years ago, just because the USA will gain and all the rest of us in the EU will suffer. For Ukraine, the poorest , bankrupt, US- far right “great power” ruled by a puppet actor president????
Not to mention forced Europe to buy diluted liquid gas from the US and higher prices than Russian gas. Who’s using utilities as a weapon again?
Germany has no liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, so any buying won’t be soon.
That won’t help, they can’t fly anyway.
Sometimes they fly. They have that stealth thing that makes them invisible (per Trump) when they fly into another country to drop bombs. But after dropping a load, making a U-turn, they are highly un-stealthy since they have the largest, hottest jet engine ever put in a ‘fighter’ jet. . . . on afterburner? Forget it. . . .So call it a kamikazi run. (which may be why the US has a large shortage of fighter pilots – over 2,000)
That would be a red line for Russia to cut off gas to Germany…!
To be fair, this is a bit of scaremongering, because the Panavia Tornado could always carry nuclear weapons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panavia_Tornado#Armament_and_equipment
German leadership is pretty poor. After arming Ukrainian Nazis, it is going to rearm itself after all these years in order to satisfy the demands of the US arms manufacturers. Us gets the “interoperability” of armaments it needs in the occupied country and Germany pays to remain subservient as NATO wants.
Germany’s already the fifth largest arms exporter in the world. Apparently they’ve been lagging lately as they cut exports to Turkey over Syria, but contracts are probably rolling in, or fixing to, including domestically.
re: Germany will buy 35 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets to replace its aging Tornado jet fleet, which are the warplanes Berlin can use to deliver US nuclear warheads that are stored in the country.
1. The F-35 is not certified to carry the B-61 nuclear gravity bombs.
2. Other aircraft including the F-15 and the Tornado can carry these bombs.
3. The F-35 is still in development, after twenty years, with full production not allowed. It has not passed operational test and evaluation.
4. The F-35 is a crappy poor performing expensive aircraft with 61% availability. Its publicized low purchase cost comes from Lockheed, with no government audit permitted. A recent Air Force report on a totally destroyed F-35 put the value at $175,983,949. They are over $200 million each with initial spares, helmet etc.
5. A $14 billion Pentagon software upgrade for F-35 jets is being installed on planes that are already deployed even though it’s “immature, deficient and insufficiently tested,” according to a new assessment by the military’s testing office.
6. So Germany’s plan to purchase this aircraft is obviously only for political purposes, not on its merits.