Germany clinches $8 billion purchase of 35 F-35 aircraft from the US

WASHINGTON — German government leaders on Wednesday announced a deal to buy 35 F-35 fighter jets from the United States, a package pegged at $8.4 billion by the Pentagon in its offer from the summer.

Signature of the letter of acceptance caps Berlin’s years-long quest to replace the portion of its aging Tornado fleet tasked with carrying out NATO’s doctrine of nuclear weapons sharing. German officials had decided on the Lockheed Martin-made jet in the spring , setting in motion the purchasing process for the aircraft, weapons and spares.

Lawmakers approved the funding in a session of the parliamentary Budget Committee earlier on Wednesday. It’s part of a $14 billion batch of procurements German defense leaders will use to improve lackluster military capabilities over the coming years, drawing from a special $107 billion defense fund set up after Russia’s assault on Ukraine.

“It is an honor to formally welcome Germany to the F-35 Lightning II Program,” said Bridget Lauderdale, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of the F-35 program. “Germany’s participation ensures the F-35′s European alliance continues to strengthen and grow through interoperability with NATO and ally nations.”

Training of German pilots with the first new planes is slated to begin in 2026 in the United States. Those activities are scheduled to move to Germany the following year, before the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, declares an initial operational capability in 2028.

That timeline is of particular concern for the Germans because it requires facilities at the country’s F-35 base, Büchel in the west of Germany, to be ready for housing the modern planes by 2027.

Luftwaffe Chief of Staff Lt Gen. Ingo Gerhartz today told reporters in Berlin officials are in the process of tapping a general contractor with experience in building F-35-related infrastructure. The plan, he said, is to condense the permitting and construction process, which other officials have said can take six or seven years, to meet the envisioned 2027 target.

Military spokespeople in Berlin could not immediately say on Wednesday which contractor Gerhartz was referring to. In April, neighboring F-35 user Belgium, which plans to upgrade by 2025 the 1950s- and 1960s-era infrastructure at air bases Florennes and Kleine Brogel, awarded a Belgian-Dutch-U.S. consortium led by Jan De Nul a contract worth $692 million for the work.

Following Berlin’s purchase of the fifth-generation fighter jets, Lockheed Martin expects to reach out to local industry early in 2023 to include German subcontractors in the F-35 program, a company spokesman told Defense News.

Generally, there are limits to how much work can be awarded locally to international F-35 customers, as the jet contains secret technologies only the U.S. government and its contractors are allowed to service.

Editor’s note: This article was corrected to state that the F-35 is a fifth-generation aircraft.

Sebastian Sprenger is associate editor for Europe at Defense News, reporting on the state of the defense market in the region, and on U.S.-Europe cooperation and multi-national investments in defense and global security. Previously he served as managing editor for Defense News. He is based in Cologne, Germany.

华盛顿——德国政府领导人周三宣布，德国将向美国购买 35 架 F-35 战斗机，五角大楼在夏季提出的报价中，这笔交易总额为 84 亿美元。

柏林签署接受函标志着其多年来更换老旧“旋风”战斗机机队中负责执行北约核武器共享战略的那部分飞机的努力终于告一段落。德国官员早在今年春季就决定采购洛克希德·马丁公司制造的这款战机，并启动了飞机、武器和备件的采购流程。

议员们周三早些时候在议会预算委员会会议上批准了这项拨款。这是德国国防领导人计划在未来几年内利用140亿美元采购资金提升其疲弱军事能力的一部分，资金来源是俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后设立的1070亿美元专项国防基金。

“我们非常荣幸正式欢迎德国加入F-35闪电II项目，”洛克希德·马丁公司副总裁兼F-35项目总经理布里奇特·劳德代尔表示，“德国的参与确保了F-35在欧洲的联盟能够通过与北约及盟国的互操作性而不断加强和发展。”

德国飞行员使用首批新型飞机的训练计划于2026年在美国开始。这些活动计划于次年转移到德国，之后德国空军（Luftwaffe）将于2028年宣布具备初始作战能力。

该时间表对德国人来说尤其令人担忧，因为它要求德国西部比歇尔的 F-35 基地的设施在 2027 年之前准备好容纳这些现代化飞机。

德国空军总参谋长英戈·格哈茨中将今天在柏林告诉记者，官员们正在物色一家在F-35相关基础设施建设方面经验丰富的总承包商。他表示，此举旨在缩短审批和建设流程（其他官员曾表示该流程可能需要六到七年），以实现预计的2027年目标。

柏林军方发言人周三未能立即说明格哈茨指的是哪家承包商。今年4月，邻国比利时（也是F-35战机用户）计划在2025年前升级弗洛雷讷和克莱纳布罗赫尔空军基地的基础设施，该基地的基础设施建于上世纪五六十年代。比利时已将一项价值6.92亿美元的合同授予由扬·德·努尔牵头的比利时-荷兰-美国联合体。

洛克希德·马丁公司的一位发言人告诉《防务新闻》，在柏林购买第五代战斗机之后，该公司预计将在 2023 年初与当地工业界接洽，将德国分包商纳入 F-35 项目。

一般来说，本地能授予国际 F-35 客户的工作量是有限的，因为该战机包含只有美国政府及其承包商才能维修的秘密技术。

编者按：本文已更正，F-35 是第五代战机。

塞巴斯蒂安·斯普伦格是《防务新闻》欧洲版副主编，负责报道该地区的防务市场状况，以及美欧在防务和全球安全领域的合作和多国投资。此前，他曾担任《防务新闻》执行主编。他现居德国科隆。