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On September 18, 2026, Lockheed Martin officially handed over the first F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jet to Germany at its production facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius accepted the aircraft on behalf of the German Air Force during a ceremony and spoke of the beginning of a “new era.”
Training in the U.S. and the Rest of the Timeline
The first F-35A—which completed its maiden flight on September 8, 2026—will not be transferred to Germany for the time being.
It will initially remain in the U.S. for training purposes for German pilots.
The first aircraft are scheduled to arrive in Germany by the end of 2027. Their home base will be Büchel Air Base in the Eifel region, where infrastructure is currently being upgraded at a cost of approximately two billion euros.
Delivery of all 35 ordered aircraft is scheduled to be completed by 2029, at which point full operational readiness is expected to be achieved. The total cost of the procurement amounts to approximately ten billion euros.
Strategic Significance and German Industrial Participation
This state-of-the-art fifth-generation fighter jet will replace the Bundeswehr’s aging Tornado fleet.
The purchase is primarily intended to ensure Germany’s nuclear sharing within NATO, as the F-35A is capable of carrying U.S. nuclear weapons.
In addition to its stealth capabilities, the aircraft serves as a flying command center capable of collecting and processing large amounts of data in real time and sharing it with other systems (such as drones).
Furthermore, the German defense industry is benefiting from this multi-billion contract: The Düsseldorf-based Rheinmetall Group is integrated into the global supply chain and manufactures central fuselage sections for the
F-35A.
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