It was reported on 8
January that the country’s new Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht had told
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the F-35 and Eurofighter ECR were again
being considered replacements for the Luftwaffe’s Panavia Tornado Interdiction
and Strike/Electronic Combat Reconnaissance aircraft.
“The aim is to clarify again whether buying the more modern F-35 aircraft could be an alternative, and whether the Eurofighter [Electronic Combat Role (ECR)] could [also] be considered for a second task for the Tornado fleet [of] electronic combat,” Lambrecht was reported by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur to have told Scholz.
Three years ago,
Germany had decided not to go for the F-35 option. The then Defence Minister
Ursula von der Leyen decided in January 2019 that both the already introduced
Eurofighter and the US aircraft F / A-18 could be successors to the Tornado. The
F-35 was thus expressly off the table. Leyen did not conclude. Her successor
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer made a final decision.
The role of the Tornado
as a carrier for atomic bombs, the so-called nuclear participation, is the
politically most difficult point for the succession decision. However, for the
Air Force, replacing the old aircraft’s other uses, especially electronic
warfare, is just as important and even a little more urgent in terms of time.
The Air Force urgently
hopes for a quick decision and then quickly procuring a machine for electronic
attack, electronic warfare - and relies on that Growler.