The US is pushing the German Defence Ministry to purchase its F-35 fighter jets over its competitors including Eurofighter Typhoon. The US has been urging NATO member states to spend more on their defence and Germany, with the largest current account surplus for 2018 has been singled out. Germany needs to choose from four options and F-35 and Eurofighter Typhoon appears to be key contenders.
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The other options that Germany has are Boeing’s F-15 Strike Eagles, F/A-18 Super Hornets and the Eurofighter Typhoon. The German Air Force Chief had been issued several warnings for promoting his inclination towards F-35 fighter jets of Lockheed Martin, the US defence giant based in Maryland.
F-35 Fighter Jets vs Eurofighter Typhoon
The German Ministry of Defence has started to incline away from its plans to procure the F-35 fighters from Lockheed Martin. The unproven combat capabilities of the F-35 fighters has been cited as the main reason for the same. A well-documented record of technical and mechanical issues is also one of the reasons why the German Ministry of Defence seems to be leaning away from the highly expensive F-35 fighter jets.
The policymakers in Germany are rather in favour of the Eurofighter Typhoon. But to comply with the NATO obligations, the fighter jets that Germany chooses need to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
This is a requirement laid down in the NATO treaty. Making the Eurofighter Typhoon capable of carrying nuclear weapons might take another five to ten years, reportedly. Now it remains to be seen as to what Berlin chooses among the four options it has to replace its fleet of Tornado fighters.
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