BAAINBw Confirms the Luftwaffe's F-35A Enters Service Without JASSM-ER — the 75-Missile Request Postponed
Koblenz, 28 August 2026
Key points
- BAAINBw confirmed to hartpunkt that the Luftwaffe's F-35A will enter service without the AGM-158B JASSM-ER cruise missile
- Germany requested up to 75 JASSM-ER missiles through Foreign Military Sales in 2022, alongside the order for 35 F-35A aircraft
- BAAINBw's reasoning: after "a comprehensive realignment of the Luftwaffe's capability picture" following Russia's full-scale invasion, the purchase "was for the time being postponed in favour of other measures"
- The Pentagon's latest Selected Acquisition Report no longer lists Germany as a JASSM-ER buyer or partner
- The F-35A reaches IOC at Büchel in 2027 and takes over the Tornado's roles from 2030; the Joint Strike Missile is the stand-off weapon hartpunkt names for the aircraft instead, integration due before end-2027
BAAINBw has confirmed the Luftwaffe's F-35A will enter service without the stand-off weapon requested alongside it in 2022 — up to 75 AGM-158B JASSM-ER missiles, now dropped from the Pentagon's own acquisition report and, in the procurement office's words, "postponed in favour of other measures".
The postponement leaves the aircraft's stand-off role unfilled as the airframe nears service: the first German F-35A has completed final assembly, and the jet reaches IOC at Büchel in 2027, taking over the Tornado's roles from 2030. BAAINBw ties the reversal to a broader post-2022 realignment, but the harder marker is external — the Pentagon's latest Selected Acquisition Report has already dropped Germany as a buyer, leaving no US-side line to activate. Hartpunkt names the Joint Strike Missile as the replacement weapon, integration due before end-2027, but quantity and a funded line are absent. Germany's other stand-off buys sit on different platforms: Taurus Neo, contracted to MBDA and Saab for serial-production preparation in December 2025, and the Tomahawk purchase Merz confirmed on 9 July.
The deferral is a force-package question before it is a missed purchase. Großwald's deep-strike positions tracker already carried Taurus Neo and Tomahawk as separate, unplaced lines; JASSM-ER's postponement confirms none of the three weapons meant to give German aircraft stand-off reach is yet ordered in quantity. Signal No. 134 carried BAAINBw's confirmation; a funded weapons-and-integration submission naming platform, number and date would settle the gap, and the Taurus Neo submission is the first place to look.
Related · German stand-off weapons
