More nations show interest in Lockheed Martin F-35. In December, the Finnish Ministry of Defense announced its selection of the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a replacement platform for the Finnish Air Force fleet of 62 F/A-18C/D Hornets. In Europe, UK, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, have already selected the F-35, and it still going on. Lockheed Martin’s business development team has been successful in winning nearly every fighter competition where the F-35 has been a contender. One of the few exceptions was in early 2019, when Germany rejected the F-35 and decided to proceed with the Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet as replacement platforms for its Tornado fleet. But recent sources suggest that Germany could possibly opt for the F-35
As part of NATO’s “nuclear sharing”, and like Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey, Germany has around twenty B-61 nuclear bombs made available to it by the US military. And, as such, it needs a fighter-bomber capable of implementing them, if necessary.
The Eurofighter EF-2000, a European solution, was the preference of the government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, but it had to be ruled out given that the certification of the Eurofighter EF-2000 to carry the B-61 would not have been obtained by the withdrawal of the Tornados.
In 2020, Germany announced its intention to procure from Boeing 30 F / A-18 Super Hornets [block III] and 15 E / A-18 Growlers for electronic warfare missions. But since then, no order has been placed.