Associated Press
March 14, 2022
Germany to buy US-made F-35s to replace aging bombers
Germany said Monday that it will replace some of its aging Tornado bomber jets with U.S.-made F-35A Lightning II aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Announcing the decision, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said Germany also will upgrade its Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets for electronic warfare – a capability that’s also currently fulfilled by the Tornado jets….
…Previously, the government had considered replacing the Luftwaffe’s Tornados with a mix of different U.S. and European-made aircraft.
…”Unity in NATO and a credible deterrent. This in particular means there is no alternative but to choose the F-35.”
The German military does not have nuclear weapons of its own, but as part of the system of nuclear deterrence developed during the Cold War it maintained bombers capable of carrying U.S. atomic bombs, some of which are stationed in Germany.
The opposition Left Party criticized the decision to purchase almost three dozen F-35s for Germany’s military.
Anti-bellum 
Germany may rue the day this decision was made. It makes me both angry and also want to cry when I think about how this money could be better spent in housing, health care, education, and creating a future where everyone thrives.
Here’s a breakdown of what they cost from a Fact Sheet F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Costs and Challenges on armscontrolcenter.org updated July 2021.
F-35A $110.3 million
F-35B $135.8 million
F-35C $117.3 million
I just want to point out that seven F-35s have crashed in the past five years, and not just in the U.S. military, but also F-35s in the British, Japanese and South Korean militaries.
This fact sheet also listed problems with F-35s, such as: 1) Unresolved F-35 ejection seat flaws could still kill up to two dozen pilots over the lifetime of the program. 2) Structural and Software Problems: Despite having planes in rotation, the F-35 has been plagued by structural and software issues that limit the aircraft’s time at top speed, maneuverability at certain angles of attack, and stealth capabilities. The machine gun on the F-35A variant used by the Air Force cannot even shoot straight. .. it fails to meet the DoD’s reliability and maintainability requirements, 3) ALIS – can display inaccurate data and has proven difficult to fix. It also has unresolved cybersecurity vulnerabilities that may not stand up to cyberattack, and 4) Gen III Helmet has information glitches that obscured pilots’ vision during night landings.
Apparently, they haven’t seen this article either, The US Air Force Quietly Admits the F-35 Is a Failure by Jessica Hall on February 25, 2021 : https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/320295-the-us-air-force-quietly-admits-the-f-35-is-a-failure.
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The fact that the F-35 can deliver B61-12 nuclear bombs from NATO storehouses in Germany seems not to concern you. F-35s have clocked some half million flight hours, so even with seven accidents the odds are greatly in favor of their succeeding in any nuclear mission. That seems to be more significant than factors that impede their lethality of the sort you catalogue. Unless your concern is that they may not all succeed in delivering nuclear payloads.
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A lot of this information may merely be psyops. It’s possible that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the F-35. I can just hear them cackling “Fooled you, Russia!!!”
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