Germany Requests Classified Briefing on F-35 for Procurement Purposes

originally posted by: Caughtlurking
By the time their 5th gen comes online the US's 6th gen should be near IOC.

In my opinion:

There is no question America is world leading in this technology, sure the UK 'eeked in' on F-35 but you have to agree that it is more political than any kind of UK leading tech. America would have the F-35B without us easy.

Look at Typhoon, it is arguably better than F-15, F-16, it is nowhere near an F-22. If the opportunities were open, UK should have gone F22 for the AA role.

Typhoon merged into a very capable 4.5 gen fighter bomber but if we did have the opportunity of F22 then we perhaps could have joined the us on the Raider and had a fighter and a bomber (GR4 tornados are still bombing so we would not have lost capability until Raider goes live).

It seems that we do have 'special relationship' with the US which without trying to embellish or big up Britain, I think we are more compatible with the US than Europe. Of course the issues we have, the US dont really need us.

a reply to: Forensick

Does the UK have a requirement for a strategic bomber? Or rather, do you think they should?

German officials will be delivering a letter of request for information to the Pentagon this summer, requesting information on the F-35, F-15, and F-18. They will also request information from Airbus on future systems.

Germany is part of the NATO nuclear sharing agreement, which means that Büchel Air Base has ~20 nuclear weapons (B61 of an unknown variant). At the moment these are for delivery by the Tornado, but this will be retired soon and the Typhoon is not yet compatible with the B61. Of course Panavia is made up of mostly the same participants as Eurofighter.

Is an american aircraft on the cards solely for nuclear weapons delivery, will the Typhoon fill the role, or will Germany leave the nuclear sharing agreement altogether?