According to the German Ministry of Defense, on December 14, 2022, Vice President of the German Federal procurement Department of the Bundeswehr BAAINBw (Bundesamtes für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr) Annette Lenigk-Emden signed an agreement in the form of an exchange of letters of LOA (Letters of Offer and Acceptance) on the purchase by Germany of 35 fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters through the American program of intergovernmental foreign military sales Foreign Military Sales (FMS). The total cost of the agreement is 8.3 billion euros, including weapons, spare engines, an extensive package of specialized equipment and spare parts, logistical support and training of personnel.
(c) Lockheed Martin The formal signing of the agreement by the German side followed immediately after the budget committee of the German Bundestag approved the allocation of 10 billion euros for the general procurement program for the German Air Force of 35 F-35A fighters on the same day.
The funds were allocated at the expense of a well-known fund of 100 billion euros for additional technical re-equipment of the Bundeswehr, the creation of which was announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on February 27.
Earlier, on July 28, 2022, the US Department of Defense Agency for Military Cooperation (Defense Security Cooperation Agency - DSCA) sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned upcoming sale of 35 F-35A fighters to Germany through the American FMS program, while the total cost of the proposed delivery was estimated at $ 8.4 billion, including training and technical support packages, as well as weapons.
According to the DSCA notification, 105 Raytheon AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles of medium and long range are to be delivered to Germany; 75 Raytheon AIM-9X Block II+ Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missiles; 75 Lockheed Martin AGM-158B/B2 cruise missiles JASSM ER; 180 sets of guided bombs Boeing GBU-31 JDAM caliber 2000 pounds; 246 sets of guided bombs Boeing GBU-54 Laser JDAM caliber 500 pounds; 344 sets of small-sized guided bombs Raytheon GBU-53 SDB-II caliber 250 pounds; as well as a number of training and practical ammunition of these types.
Recall that on March 14, 2022, German Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht made an official statement about the decision of the German government to purchase 35 American F-35A fighters to replace Tornado fighter-bombers used as carriers of nuclear weapons - American B61 series nuclear bombs in the German Air Force. The purchased F-35A are to join the 33rd Luftwaffe Tactical Aviation Squadron (TaktLwG 33) at Buchel Air Base, Rhineland-Palatinate, replacing 46 Tornado IDS aircraft in its composition in 2026-2029.
Thus, the German government abandoned the preliminary decision taken in March 2020 to purchase 30 American Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters and 15 EA-18G Growler 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), moreover, 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, the then Minister of Defense Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer notified that the final decision on the replacement of Tornado fighter-bombers in the German Air Force with new types of aircraft would be made in 2022 or 2023, and the purchase of new aircraft would be made in 2025 with plans to replace Tornado aircraft by 2030, which means an extension of the Tornado's service life 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 Tactical Aviation squadron of the Luftwaffe is based, equipped with 46 Tornado IDS aircraft.
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.
Under these conditions, Germany had only the choice of an American aircraft. The most obvious option was to purchase a new fifth-generation F-35 aircraft that had already become "standard" for NATO, and the command of the German Air Force also spoke in favor of this from the very beginning. However, the F-35 was initially rejected by German government circles for technical, political and cost reasons, and at the beginning of 2020, 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 electronic warfare aircraft-18G Growler. 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 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.
However, since the beginning of 2022, in the light of the Russian special 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-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.
