Fighter F-35 in flight. Germany plans to buy some of them from the American company Lockheed Martin JOSEPH BARRON / AFP
The German army plans to buy up to thirty-five F-35 fighters from the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin, as well as fifteen Eurofighter fighters, a parliamentary source told Agence France-Presse on Monday, March 14. The Bundeswehr, as the German army is called, wants to replace its Tornado fleet, designed to provide a nuclear mission in the interests of NATO.
It is “correct” to say that Berlin intends to acquire these devices, the source claims on condition of anonymity, confirming the information of the German media, including Die Welt and Bild.
The F-35s will primarily be used to carry American nuclear missiles as part of NATO deterrence operations, while the Eurofighters will be primarily designed to support air defense electronic countermeasures operations.
An extraordinary meeting of the National Chamber of Deputies’ Defense Commission has been scheduled for the end of the day on this issue.
Treason to the tri-national project “Air Combat System of the Future”
This planned order is a bad signal for the Franco-German-Spanish SCAF (Air Combat System of the Future) project, which is to replace the French Rafale fighters and the German and Spanish Eurofighters by 2040.
The acquisition of these F-35s could indeed “eliminate” the need for a new European fighter by 2040 for Germany, which is the goal of the European SCAF project, according to a recent parliamentary report by French MPs.
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wanted to allay those concerns at the end of February, believing that in the long term the European aircraft project was a “top priority”. “It is important for me (…) that we build the next generation of combat aircraft and tanks in cooperation with European partners,” he said.
However, the German army had to quickly replace its Tornado, which, according to Mr. Scholz, was “obsolete.”
SCAF, the cornerstone of the European defense project, has been in turmoil for months over a division of labor rivalry between France’s Dassault and Airbus, which represents German and Spanish interests.
However, the war in Ukraine has shuffled the cards in Europe, giving new impetus to the overall defense project. Berlin also made a historic U-turn at the end of February by announcing that it would allocate an exceptional package of 100 billion euros to modernize its army and now wants to spend at least 2% of its GDP on defense every year.
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