Germany To Purchase Up To 35 F-35 Stealth Aircraft – Reports

[sschofield]

To flesh out my answer above a bit, the whole point of the initial plan to buy Super Hornets was to replace the B61-capable Tornado. But, although the legacy Hornet is nuclear-capable, the Super Hornet isn't, or not yet at any rate. The Navy didn't need it certifying (they removed the tactical nuclear weapons off US carriers in the mid-1990's, and if there was ever a chance to reintroduce them, which the Navy doesn't want anyway, that job would likely go to the F-35), so there was no real point. Germany thought that they could get approval, but it quickly became evident after they announced they were buying F/A-18s and EA-18Gs that there were no certifcation plans and that wasn't likely to change any time soon.

So the plan was changed, and the Hornet buy was dropped. Since the Germans were no longer getting F/A-18E/F's, there was certainly no sense in buying a handful of Growlers, which would have been a huge cost to operate such a tiny fleet. So now they are getting F-35s (already B61 certified) like most other European nations, and there will be a development process to get the"new" EF2000 ECR up and running. A mess of a procurement plan politically, but probably the most sensible given the options.