Germany currently has 128 Typhoon fighters and 85 Tornado, a fighter-bomber capable of performing ground support, battlefield occlusion, reconnaissance and electronic warfare missions, and a weapon system that fires Storm Shadow, Taurus Cruise Missile and ALARM anti-radiation missiles against targets thousands of kilometers away! More importantly, it can also launch the "B-61 tactical nuclear bomb" provided by the United States, according to the intra-NATO nuclear sharing agreement, the United States deployed 20 tactical nuclear bombs at buscher Air Base in rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany, and a squadron of Tornado fighters was responsible for using them, with explosive yields ranging from 10,000 tons to hundreds of thousands of tons, which is an important support for Germany's international status.
(Tornado fighter in active service in the Federal Republic of Germany)
Didn't expect it! Germany, which provoked two world wars, turned out to be a nuclear power, and having a nuclear bomb means that Germany is a nuclear state, which can protect Germany's security more than any conventional weapon, especially for Germany at present. The current Germany has long since lost its former imperial glory and is in a serious decline in force, such as the German armored forces that were once in the limelight, and now there are only 2 armored divisions left, including 5 tank battalions with a total of 220 Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks. Today's Wehrmacht is more like a bunch of civil servants, working 40 hours a week and still being able to go home on Sundays! It is unrealistic to expect them to fight in blood and defend their homeland.
The existing equipment of the German army is also generally in poor condition due to lack of maintenance, such as the lack of accessories, the Luftwaffe Typhoon fighters, less than 40 to maintain combat readiness; the 6 conventional submarines equipped by the Navy, once entered the dock together to prepare, so that the submariners fell into the embarrassment of collective holiday. This is the result of enjoying a high welfare life for a long time and without security pressure, Ma Fang nanshan has long forgotten the cruelty of war! That's why the 20 nuclear bombs stored at the Buscher base are particularly important! Abandoned conventional military forces are not enough to protect Germany, and Germany needs nuclear deterrence to ensure its own security! To use these nuclear bombs, the Tornado fighter is indispensable! Because among the German active equipment, only the Tornado fighter-bomber has the ability to drop nuclear bombs.
The problem is that the Luftwaffe is equipped with the Tornado fighters are aging, the earlier production of the Tornado has been in service for more than 40 years, the last batch of production of the Tornado is also 30 years old, it is imminent to find a successor to them, and the Bad Winds at the Bushel base responsible for the use of nuclear bombs are not good! Although the Germans claim to be fully committed to upgrading and maintaining these aircraft, and trying to keep them retired until 2030, this is after all an old model that has been discontinued for 30 years (discontinued in 1992), without production line support, and the result has not been seen below!
The best thing to do is to purchase a batch of new fighter jets and completely replace the Wind! Retire all 85 Of the Winds! More than 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO's eastern border is more than a thousand kilometers away from Germany, and Germany has almost no targets to deal with, so Germany only intends to purchase 48 F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters (of which 18 electronics are war models), yes, the carrier-based aircraft on American aircraft carriers! In fact, the U.S. Navy is also buying this old model, if Germany wants, it can produce a few for it, but the United States obviously does not intend to complete Germany so simply.
(Super Hornet is also a very good fighter)
It turned out that in addition to purchasing 48 Super Hornets, Germany would have to buy 90 of the latest Typhoon fighters, and the Luftwaffe would have 218 Typhoons (the old models were definitely going to be eliminated, so the total size would not be so large), which made the United States very unhappy, and there was a need to buy F-35A! Not only the ability to launch tactical nuclear bombs, but also the ability to achieve first-class air combat performance and stealth! You can buy a few more F/A-18s! Why buy two models of fighters?
(F-35 fighter jet testing tactical nuclear bombs)
In short, the United States was very dissatisfied with Germany's refusal to give it business, and if the Luftwaffe orders were given to Lockheed, it would be 138 aircraft! Germany will then be the second largest buyer of F-35s after Japan! Or buy 138 F\A-18s is also acceptable, but Germany believes that the Typhoon is a multi-european cooperative fighter, and its own products must support it.
(Even if the industry is developed such as Germany, it is difficult to modify the weapon system of the fighter, the picture above is the Typhoon fighter)
Japan has purchased 148 F-35A/B fighters at a total cost of more than $30 billion, and subsequent upgrade maintenance and weapon system support will be astronomical! The U.S. military-industrial complex is already too happy to sleep, and it would be perfect if Germany could become a second Japan!
(Japan's purchase of F35 fighters is actually a disguised payment of protection fees to the United States.)
However, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel also saw this, and she insisted on finding another way to solve the problem of the use of the B-61 nuclear bomb, such as upgrading and modifying the Typhoon fighter to make it have the ability to use nuclear bombs, and even if she did not buy a French Rafale, she could use it, that is, she could not rely on the United States!
Merkel is not all bitter about money, but does not dare to put Germany's defense security in the hands of the United States. The Tornado fighter is not made in the United States, just because the B-61 nuclear bomb comes from the United States, it seriously restricts the choice of successor models, the United States has repeatedly threatened to transport the B-61, cancel the sharing of German nuclear weapons, and now it is forced to buy and sell, bent on letting Germany buy the F-35A, this kind of hegemonic behavior is germany is not willing to accept!
In addition, Germany and France, Spain have launched a European sixth-generation aircraft program (FCAS), which is expected to be available by 2040, which is a long-term investment, once Germany spends a lot of money to buy the American F-35, there is no extra money to support the European sixth-generation aircraft project! It will be France and Spain that will be offended, and the unity of the EU will be hit hard, so Merkel has insisted on refusing to buy the F-35 during her tenure. But now that Schultz is Germany's new chancellor and has promised to maintain its nuclear strike capabilities within NATO, it seems inevitable that the United States will grit its teeth and buy the F-35 with the United States stuck in the neck.