Germany's First F-35A Leaves Final Assembly, Bound for the Nuclear Mission the Tornado Hands Over

Lockheed Martin announced on August 18 that the first F-35A built for the German Air Force has completed final assembly at its Fort Worth plant and has moved into the Aircraft Final Finishes stage, where the low-observable coating and the national livery are applied. A rollout ceremony is scheduled for September 18.

Seven more German aircraft are on the line behind it. The first eight are to be flown to Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, later this year, where German crews and maintainers will train alongside Polish and Finnish personnel before the type moves to Büchel Air Base in Germany in 2027.

The order is for 35 aircraft, approved in December 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. GlobalMilitary.net's German Air Force inventory still records zero F-35s in service against 35 on order — a line that will move for the first time when the Arkansas deliveries are logged.

What the aircraft is for is unusually specific. Germany hosts US B61 gravity bombs under NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement, and the only German aircraft certified to carry them is the Tornado IDS, a design that first flew in 1974. The Luftwaffe still operates 65 Tornado IDS and 21 Tornado ECR, and the fleet is due out of service around 2030. Certifying the Eurofighter for the B61 was studied and rejected as too slow and too expensive, since the weapon is US-controlled and the certification path runs through Washington. The F-35A arrives already cleared for the B61-12, which is what made it the answer to a question Berlin had deferred for a decade.

Germany is the fourth European host of American warheads to pick the F-35 for the mission, after Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, and the arrangement itself is set out on our NATO nuclear sharing page. The wider European fleet is filling out at the same time: GlobalMilitary.net records seven F-35As delivered to Poland against 25 still on order, and one to Finland against 63, with both air forces training at the same Arkansas base as the Luftwaffe.

The remaining schedule is tight rather than uncertain. The rollout in September is followed by a first flight and formal handover, then the transatlantic ferry to Ebbing; Büchel's runway and shelter works have to be finished for the 2027 arrival, and the base has to be certified for the nuclear mission before the Tornado can stand down. Germany has said it will not retire the Tornado until the F-35 has taken the role over.