Germany Plans To Buy 15 New F-35 Fighter Jets

JAKARTA - Germany plans to buy 15 additional F-35 fighter jets, Politico reported on Friday citing several people familiar with the matter.

This is a step that will add the country's planned US-made jet fleet to 50.

The report comes amid tensions between Germany and France over the joint partnership of FCAS' French-German fighter jets, after an earlier report this week said France now wants a 80% division of work.

The demand will cancel the agreed division of tasks and possibly stop the project from entering the next phase, an industry source told Reuters.

The reported German order will also be in line with agreements between NATO allies to increase their collective spending target to 5% from output over the next decade, citing long-term threats posed by Russia and the need to strengthen civilian and military resilience.

A spokesman for the German Ministry of Defense said it declined to comment on possible procurement plans before parliamentary approval.

So far, Germany has ordered 35 units of the F-35 to replace a total of 85 units of old Tornado fighter jets that will be deactivated.

Meanwhile, military sources told Reuters that the additional 15 F-35 jet numbers had become part of previous considerations, but that number needs to be adjusted after NATO's new target for weapons and troop numbers.

The new target shows that the initial figure is not large enough and the actual required number of additional F-35s may be even bigger eventually, although the source did not confirm this.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday there were still disagreements regarding the FCAS project configuration, which had been marked by delays and internal disputes over the division of employment and intellectual property rights.