Will Germany limit itself to 35 F-35As for its Luftwaffe?

Without surprise, the German Chancellery has therefore announced, within the framework of its program to revitalize its armed forces, the acquisition of 35 F-35A combat aircraft from the American Lockheed-Martin to ensure NATO's nuclear sharing mission of which Berlin is one of the 5 pillars with Ankara, Amsterdam, Brussels and Rome, alongside 15 aircraft from electronic warfare and suppression of opposing anti-aircraft defenses Typhoon ECR of the European consortium Eurofighter bringing together Germany, Spain, Italy and Great Britain, in order to replace the Tornado ECR which ensured this mission until now. Beyond signing the end of production of the F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler from Boeing, which were initially to be ordered to carry out these same missions, this expected decision from Berlin, as formatted and presented , raises many questions about the future of European defense cooperation.

Firstly, and to cut short any pointless controversy, it is important to remember that, in this case, Berlin ultimately had few alternatives apart from actually ordering American F-35As, the only aircraft qualified for enforce the new American B-61Mod12 nuclear bomb which will soon be in service within the framework of nuclear sharing within the alliance. The bet made by Angela Merkel to announce the order of Super Hornet and Growler, precisely not to order F-35A, failed since the Pentagon did not include the Boeing plane in its qualification program for this ammunition. In fact, to remain in the club of nations integrated into NATO's nuclear sharing, Berlin had no other choice but to abandon the Super Hornet and turn to the F-35A. In doing so, it became unthinkable to acquire and implement a micro fleet of 15 EA-18G Growlers to replace the Tornado ECRs of the Luftwaffe, and the choice of a specialized version of the Typhoon, also proposed by Airbus DS 3 years ago, takes on its full meaning. Finally, at no time Rafale French was not considered as an alternative in this case, since the couple formed by the Rafale and the ASMPA nuclear missile is not integrated into NATO's nuclear sharing, and that Berlin has no interest in acquiring French aircraft of this type when it can acquire Typhoon produced by its own industry.

Beyond noting the list of new defense equipment that Berlin is preparing to order, including American fighters, heavy helicopters, anti-aircraft systems and new infantry fighting vehicles, all for €48 billion i.e. half of the €100 billion envelope announced for this transformation, it is especially relevant to note what is not there, in this case the some 60 Typhoon Tranche IV that the Luftwaffe was to order to replace its Tornado IDS dedicated to air strike missions. Of the 90 or so Typhoon must be ordered to replace the Typhoon tranche I and the Tornado, only 27 were actually ordered, and it was reasonable to expect that the remaining aircraft would be ordered on this occasion. Furthermore, while the Luftwaffe will ultimately receive 15 Typhoon ECR instead of the American Growler, the overall envelope of devices potentially ordered would have exceeded 100 units, sufficient to hope for industrial optimizations and more competitive prices.

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