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Germany to receive first F-35s in 2026 to rejuvenate air force

A U.S. Air Force F-35A fighter jet on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, U.K., on July 18, 2022.   (Jason Alden/Bloomberg)
By Kamil Kowalcze and Michael Nienaber Washington Post

Germany is set to receive the first batch of its F-35 fighter jets in 2026, though the initial eight units will remain stationed in the U.S. for training purposes, creating a tight schedule to build up more advanced air-defense capabilities before the aging Tornado models are retired in 2030.

The procurement schedule foresees a handover in tranches, with 10 F-35 deliveries in 2027 and the same number in 2028, and a final batch of seven by 2029, according to German lawmakers. The first models will remain at a base in Texas so that pilots of Germany’s Luftwaffe air force receive training, said the lawmakers, who asked not to be identified because the timeline isn’t public.

In total, Germany has ordered 35 of the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built combat aircraft, part of a major push to upgrade the country’s aging kit. Its air force now relies on the Tornado model and the more recent Eurofighter Typhoon, and any European next-generation warplane would not become available for more than another decade, prompting Germany to look overseas for new aircraft.

Fighters are among the most costly of defense projects, with time-frames that can run to decades and budgets swelling into hundreds of billions of dollars.

Britain and Italy recently agreed to merge plans for a next-generation warplane with a parallel project in Japan - called the the Global Combat Air Programme - while France’s Dassault Aviation SA and the German arm of Airbus SE have joined up in a Franco-German project. That plane is due to enter service about five years after the GCAP, which is slated to bring a fighter to service by 2035.

The defense and budget committees of Germany’s lower house of parliament approved the procurement of the F-35 models on Wednesday, with a proposed budget of 9.9 billion euros ($10.5 billion) for the purchase. The figure is part of a debt-financed €100 billion special fund that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.