At the start of the week, the German authorities confirmed that they wanted to acquire Typhoon combat aircraft as well as 30 F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet and 15 EA 18 G Growlers to replace the Luftwaffe Tornadoes carrying out the missions attack, electronic warfare and suppression of defenses, as well as nuclear strike missions within the framework of NATO. To the extent that Berlin does not envisage abandoning its role nor the status which results from it within NATO concerning nuclear deterrence, despite the consequent limits of the exercise from an operational point of view , its decision and the distribution between German and American aircraft was self-evident.
In February 2019, Berlin announced that it would select only two aircraft for its call for tenders, namely the Typhoon and the Boeing F18, effectively eliminating the Lockheed F35A, which was nevertheless favored by the Luftwaffe and NATO. In this case, it was above all political and industrial pressure from Airbus, but also the strong reservations from Paris against the F35, which sealed the fate of the Lockheed plane. In German and French aeronautical industrial circles, the F35 is in fact perceived as an aircraft designed above all to bring the European military aeronautical industry to its knees, as well as as an existential threat against the Franco-German SCAF aircraft program . 6th generation combat . Whether the arguments presented are true or not no longer matters, any more than the real or supposed performances of the F35 , since the German decision has now been made.
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