German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht made an official announcement on March 14, 2022 about the decision of the German government to purchase 35 American fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters to replace Tornado fighter-bombers used as carriers of nuclear weapons in the German Air Force - American nuclear bombs of the B61 series.
Image of the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter jet in the German Air Force paint (c) theaviationgeekclub.com
At the same time, a decision was announced to purchase 15 modified Eurofighter ECR fighters to replace the German Air Force's electronic warfare and air defense suppression Tornado ECR aircraft.
Thus, the German government completely abandoned the preliminary decision taken in March 2020 to purchase 30 American Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters and 15 EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft as part of the German Air Force to replace part of the fleet of obsolete Tornado aircraft (in the IDS fighter-bomber and ECR air defense suppression aircraft variants). Growler, and this replacement was expected by 2025.
On April 16, 2020, the German Defense Minister sent an official request to the US Defense Minister Mark Esper in an email to the US government regarding the purchase of 30 Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet multipurpose fighters and 15 Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare and air defense suppression aircraft for the German Air Force. However, the decision to purchase F/A-18F and EA-18G aircraft caused strong controversy and criticism in Germany, and as a result, the then government of Angela Merkel decided to postpone this issue. On April 22, 2020, then Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer notified that the final decision to replace Tornado fighter-bombers in the German Air Force with new types of aircraft should be made in 2022 or 2023, and the purchase of new aircraft will be made in 2025 with plans to replace Tornado aircraft by 2030, which means an extension of service life Tornado until the end of the decade.
The German Luftwaffe has 233 combat aircraft, including 140 Eurofighter fighter and 93 Tornado aircraft (of the last 83 in line units). The main problem for the German Air Force is the replacement of Tornadoes used as carriers of nuclear weapons - American nuclear bombs of the B61 series. It is believed that 20 B61 nuclear bombs are in American storage at Buchel Air Base, Rhineland-Palatinate, where the 33rd Luftwaffe Tactical Aviation Squadron (TaktLwG 33) is based, equipped with 46 Tornado aircraft IDS.
Although the obvious nominal choice for the German Air Force to replace the Tornado was the adoption of another modification of the Eurofighter fighter, produced with the participation of German industry and on the German production line, however, the lack of the possibility of carrying Eurofighter American nuclear bombs made such a replacement impossible. Theoretically, the Eurofighter could have been modified and certified to carry American nuclear weapons, but this would have required time-consuming and expensive R&D, and most importantly, encountered politically motivated resistance from the United States.
In these conditions, Germany had only the choice of an American aircraft. The most obvious option would be to purchase a new fifth-generation F-35 aircraft that has already become "standard" for NATO, and the command of the German Air Force also spoke in favor of this. However, the F-35 was rejected by German government circles for technical, political and cost reasons, and as a result, a "Solomon" mixed solution was chosen - the acquisition of 93 Eurofighter fighters of the new Tranche 4 series, as well as 30 American Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters and 15 EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft. At the same time, the new Eurofighter Tranche 4 series will replace in the German Air Force both "clean" Tornado IDS fighter-bombers and 32 Eurofighter fighters of the first Tranche 1 series (which, in turn, are supposed to be offered for sale abroad), and F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft (in a two-seat version only) They were supposed to replace the German Tornado IDS as carriers of nuclear weapons as part of TaktLwG 33 in Buchel, and the EA-18G Growler aircraft were to replace aircraft of a similar purpose for electronic warfare and suppression of Tornado ECR air defense as part of the TaktLwG 51 squadron at Schleswig Air Base.
Now, in the light of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, which led politically to a sharp consolidation of NATO and the return of "American leadership", as well as to the decision of the German government to sharply increase military spending, political and economic objections to the purchase of the F-35A were removed, and Germany finally made a choice in favor of the F-35A to replace the German Tornado IDS as nuclear weapons carriers as part of TaktLwG 33 in Buchel. It can be assumed that in the future Germany's purchases of the F-35A will expand.
As for the Eurofighter fighter variant in the electronic warfare aircraft variant and the Eurofighter ECR air defense suppression, this modification has yet to be created. Earlier in November 2020, the Airbus Group has already received a contract to supply the German Air Force with the first 38 new Eurofighter Tranche 4 series of 93 planned fighters.
