First German F-35A at Fort Worth — Pistorius Gives Full Operational Capability by 2029, Luftwaffe Plan Says 2032

The delivery lots explain the difference. On the reported schedule eight aircraft come in late 2026 and early 2027 and stay in the United States; ten follow around the turn of 2027 to 2028, ten a year later, and the last seven at the end of 2029 or early 2030. A fleet whose final aircraft arrive in 2030 cannot be fully operational in 2029. What falls in 2029 is the initial capability, and with it the milestone that matters politically: the handover of the nuclear-sharing role before the Tornado goes in 2030. Lieutenant General Holger Neumann, chief of the air force, kept to generalities: a "modern, proven and highly capable" fighter. About EUR 10 billion from the special fund covers the 35 aircraft, spares, armament and five years of maintenance.

The minister's 2029 is best read as the nuclear date given the wrong name, and the slip is instructive: for Berlin the F-35's operational capability is the B61 role, and everything else the aircraft can do is on a slower clock. The conventional side bears that out. Großwald reported on 28 August that the aircraft enters service without the JASSM-ER requested in 2022, with the Joint Strike Missile to be integrated by the end of 2027 and no quantity or funded line published; nothing said at Fort Worth, which Signal No. 149 carried, changed that. An aircraft certified for one weapon it must never use and waiting on the weapons it might is a deterrence purchase, which is what it was bought as in 2022, and the 2032 date is when it becomes an air-force purchase as well. Reports last year of fifteen more aircraft have produced no order, and none is on the budget committee's agenda for 23 and 24 September. The lot to watch is the second: the ten aircraft due around the turn of 2027 to 2028 are the first that land at Büchel, and the rebuilt base has to be ready to receive them.