In what would be a decision in contradiction with the stance reported last July, local media reports indicate that Germany would be evaluating expanding its future fleet of F-35A with the purchase of new additional stealth fighters from the U.S., for which the country would invest nearly 2.5 billion euros. Particularly, the operation that has been speculated on in Berlin would include a total of 15 aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin, which would bring the number of aircraft of this type in German hands to about 50.
Expanding on details, the medium Der Spiegel was the one that reported the aforementioned news, affirming that classified documents presented before the Budget Committee of the Bundestag request the acquisition of additional F-35A aircraft. It should be recalled in this regard that the German Air Force’s plans for the future foresee the replacement of its fleet of already obsolete Panavia Tornado aircraft with the American-made units, making the acquisition one of the most relevant for the institution in recent years. Even more so, considering that these platforms would be in charge of deploying nuclear weaponry in case of potential conflict; specifically, bombs that belong to the U.S. but are stored on German territory.
On the other hand, the German Air Force considers that expanding the number of F-35A fighters it will have in the future will be vital to comply with the requirements recently established by NATO, which has increased the demand on its members to face what it considers a latent threat from Russia. In this line, just as we reported on October 16, it is important to highlight that Berlin also confirmed the acquisition of a new batch of 20 additional Eurofighter Tranche 5 fighters that will allow it to expand its combat fleets.
It is important to mention, in both cases, that Germany previously did not consider the purchase of additional aircraft viable for reasons that mainly lay in budgetary limitations. However, the defense portfolio has been favored with the exemption for investments aimed at strengthening the country’s security amidst the environment of high tensions it is in, giving Minister Boris Pistorius greater room for maneuver for new acquisitions. In turn, the operation would also be seen as a new political display of goodwill with the U.S., whose president Donald Trump has urged European countries to invest more in their defense through orders to his country’s industry.
In addition, the issue alluded to in the previous paragraph regarding the budgetary question, has a high relevance impact not only on the purchase of the aircraft themselves, but also on the necessary infrastructure to house them along with their armament. Until now, the F-35A fighters ordered by Germany would have their main base at the Büchel Air Base, chosen among other things for being one of the points where the aforementioned American nuclear bombs are located. In detail, the reports gather that the work to adapt these facilities for the arrival of the future German stealth fighters required increasing the financing up to 2 billion euros, when originally the investment of 700 million was foreseen.
Finally, it is necessary to state that in the opinion of German analysts, the arrival of new F-35A fighters would be a worrying sign for the FCAS program undertaken by the country along with France and Spain. We are talking about a program that is facing serious problems to stay on course, as the company Airbus that represents Berlin in the project is accusing its French counterpart Dassault of seeking to take a greater percentage than agreed in terms of the development and manufacture of the new sixth-generation design. With a similar precedent in the case of the Eurofighter program, executive director Eric Trappier even slipped that Dassault could tackle the project on its own given the repeated German complaints; a final decision in this regard is expected to be made before the end of the year.
*Images used for illustrative purposes.
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