BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany has no plans to procure additional F-35 fighter jets, a defence ministry spokesperson said on Friday, denying a Politico report that the country planned to grow its planned fleet to 50.
So far, Germany has ordered 35 of the U.S.-made jets to replace a total of 85 ageing Tornado fighter jets that will be decommissioned.
“The defence ministry currently has no plans to procure additional F-35s beyond the 35 F-35s already contractually agreed,” the spokesperson said at a regular news conference.
A military source told Reuters that the figure of 15 additional F-35 jets had been part of previous considerations, but that the numbers needed to be adapted after NATO’s new targets for weapons and troop numbers.
The new targets suggest the initial figure was not large enough and the actual number of additional F-35s needed might be bigger in the end, although the source would not confirm this.
The Politico report comes amid tensions between Germany and France on the joint Franco-German fighter jet FCAS partnership after a report earlier this week that France now wants a workshare of 80%.
The demand would scrap the agreed division of tasks and possibly stop the project from entering its next phase, an industry source told Reuters.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that differences remained on the configuration of the FCAS project, which has been plagued by delays and infighting over workshare and intellectual property rights.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Friederike Heine; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Saad Sayeed)
