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| Russian Nuclear Weapons Are The Reason Germany Needs US F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets |
Berlin - Germany needs US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets capable of deploying nuclear weapons as long as Russia has a similar arsenal. This was conveyed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz when he announced that Berlin would speed up the procurement of F-35 fighter jets.
It was delivered at the Security Conference in Berlin. According to him, Germany will use the aircraft as part of NATO's joint deterrence. “Anything less than that leaves us vulnerable to blackmail,” said Scholz, as quoted by Russia Today, Friday (2/12/2022).
Scholz was referring to Western claims that Moscow had threatened to use nuclear weapons to win the Ukraine war. Russian officials have dismissed that narrative saying its warnings are simply a rehash of the country's nuclear posture.
In contrast, Russia regards the global expansion of the US-led military bloc's reach as a major threat. "Russia's position is that any military confrontation between nuclear powers, even conventional ones, must be avoided because of the risk of escalation," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The German chancellor said her country would finalize a deal by the end of the year for US Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets designed to launch nuclear bombs. Currently, the only fighter in the German fleet with that capability is the Panavia Tornado, which the military is looking to replace with a more modern aircraft.
The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) has around 90 fighter jets that were introduced in the 1980s and will be phased out between 2025 and 2030. Germany is reportedly considering buying up to 35 F-35s for a €100 billion armament program. The inclusion of the American aircraft in the list of replacement candidates, which the German Ministry of Defense reported to Parliament in March, reversed an earlier decision by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, in favor of the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet.
Russia has long criticized NATO's nuclear weapons-sharing scheme as violating the spirit of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. According to Moscow, by training countries like Poland on how to deploy American nuclear weapons, Washington is upsetting the balance of power in Europe.