BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is pressing Washington to clarify whether it would let the Eurofighter Typhoon carry nuclear bombs as part of shared Western defenses, an issue that could help decide whether Berlin orders more of the jets, sources familiar with the matter said.

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Eurofighter Typhoon (L) and a Dassault Rafale are seen at the ILA Air Show in Berlin, Germany, April 26, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo

Although not a nuclear power, Germany hosts some U.S. nuclear warheads under NATO’s nuclear-sharing policy and operates a number of Tornado warplanes that can deliver them. New jets will need to be certified by Washington to carry out nuclear missions, a process which can take years.

Germany’s defense ministry sent a letter to the U.S. Defense Department in April asking whether certification of the European jets was possible, how much it would cost, and how long it would take, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Top U.S. Air Force and Pentagon officials are working to respond to the German query, the sources said.

The multi-billion-euro tender to replace Germany’s fleet of 89 Tornados, which are due to retire in the middle of the next decade, pits the Typhoon against several U.S. contenders at a time of strains in transatlantic ties.

Executives with Airbus (AIR.PA), Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and Boeing (BA.N) are making presentations to the defense ministry this week after submitting reams of information on their respective warplanes in April, with the formal launch of the competition expected later this year, industry sources said.

The German defense ministry declined comment on the issue.

No comment was immediately available from the Pentagon.

Lockheed’s radar-evading F-35 fighter is already slated to have the nuclear capability in the early 2020s, while the Eurofighter would still need certification.

Airbus has said it is confident Eurofighter - a joint project with Britain’s BAE Systems (BAES.L) and Italy’s Leonardo (LDOF.MI) - could be certified by 2025. Sources familiar with the Eurofighter said it was possible to reconfigure the European jet to carry nuclear bombs.

But U.S. government sources say that schedule is ambitious given that the F-35 and other aircraft must be certified first. Washington has suggested it could take 7-10 years to certify the Eurofighter for nuclear missions, well beyond the Tornado’s retirement date, according to one German military source.

While urging Europe to boost defense spending, U.S. officials are worried about being shut out of European defense projects after 25 EU governments signed a pact in December to fund, develop and deploy armed forces together. [nL2N1QH1P6]

U.S. officials will also weigh whether the Eurofighter could survive a mission into enemy territory to drop a nuclear bomb without stealth capability at a time when Russia and other potential future enemies have bolstered their sensors and air defenses, a second source said.

The F-35 is the only aircraft in the running that has such radar-evading capabilities, but Boeing and Eurofighter argue that their aircraft can work in tandem with jamming equipment.

Volker Paltzo, chief executive of Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH, told Reuters this week that he remained confident that Eurofighter could take over the roles of the Tornado, and the company had a strategy to deal with a length certification process.

He said the Tornado had been successfully recertified several times after major upgrades.</s>German officials have reportedly asked their American counterparts about whether it would be possible to turn the Eurofighter Typhoon into a nuclear strike aircraft. The answer to this question could have serious ramifications on Germany’s effort to replace its aging Panavia Tornado combat jets, which are certified to carry U.S. B61 nuclear bombs during a crisis as part of an inter-NATO agreement, and reinforces previous reports that the European fighter jet is the German Air Force’s preferred option. In April 2018, the German Federal Ministry of Defense sent a formal letter to U.S. officials asking about whether it would be feasible to configure Typhoons for the nuclear mission, how expensive it would be, and how long the process might take, according to Reuters.

The German Air Force’s ability to fly nuclear strikes has become an increasingly important issue even though the country is not a nuclear power itself. During the Cold War, Germany, as well as other NATO allies, agreed to host American nuclear bombs with the understanding that their aircraft could be called upon to employ them if a major conflict with the Soviet Union broke out. After the Cold War, this arrangement has persisted and the Germans continue to keep an unspecified number of B61 bombs at Büchel Air Base near the borders with Belgium and Luxembourg. The problem is that the only German aircraft that can carry these weapons are the Tornados, which are in desperate need of replacement.

Availability rates for the Cold War-era swing wing jets have dramatically dropped in recent years. In 2015, state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that only 30 of the approximately 85 remaining aircraft were airworthy at any one time. The aircraft also lack cockpits that will work with night vision goggles, which limits the jet's ability to perform missions at night. In March 2018, German magazine Der Spiegel also obtained a report calling into question the security of the Tornado’s data links. “This could in the worst case mean that the demand for an encrypted communication system for the Tornado weapons system can’t be achieved,” the document stated according to the report. “That means the Tornado weapons system may not take part in NATO missions.” The German Air Force disputed the story, saying that all of the Tornados set aside to support the alliance's requirements had the equipment necessary to perform their missions. Regardless, the service has made no effort to hide the importance of replacing the jets.

The Germans will need to certify whatever aircraft replaces the Tornado as a nuclear-capable platform in order to continue performing the mission. In addition to Eurofighter, the Germans are considering an unspecified variant of Boeing’s F-15 Eagle or that company’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and Lockheed Martin’s stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The process to make sure any of those planes could carry the B61 would likely include ensuring they could safely drop the bombs at all, as well as developing appropriate mission systems and software to enable this capability under various different attack parameters. In addition, engineers would have to find ways to install the necessary systems and linkages so that the pilot can arm the weapon in flight. Each one of the bombs has a so-called “Permissive Action Link,” or PAL, that prevents the warhead from functioning until an individual puts in a specific code. You can read more about these safety features and other components of the bombs in this past feature.

The U.S. military has not certified any variants of the Joint Strike Fighter to carry the B61, but Air Force is in the process of doing so with regards to the F-35A. The aircraft types that Boeing is offering are the only ones in the running that have already gone through this process. But the German Air Force's top preference is reportedly the Eurofighter. Germany already has nearly 130 of the jets in service and recently began adding a robust air-to-ground capability to some of them. The video below shows German Air Force Eurofighters training to employ precision-guided bombs as part of validating the aircraft's new air-to-ground role in 2017.</s>Germany's next major aircraft acquisition has proved nothing short of a political hot potato. Lt. Gen. Karl Müller was fired from his role as chief of staff of the German Air Force for supporting Berlin's purchase of Lockheed Martin's F-35 aircraft in March. Others in the German Defense Ministry have instead favored buying European-made aircraft instead of the F-35 or even other, more proven American jets like the F/A-18 or F-15E.

Müller said last November that "the Luftwaffe considers the F-35's capability as a benchmark for the selection process for the Tornado replacement, and I think I have expressed myself clearly enough as to what the favorite of the air force is." However, others within the German MoD rebuked Müller before he was let go, saying in December the Eurofighter was the "primary" option to replace the Tornado. The Tornado was manufactured by the Panavia company, organized by Germany in conjunction with the Italian and British governments for the task.

Germany and France have a joint agreement to develop a future fighter jet, but the Franco-German plane is years away from becoming a reality.

With Müller out of the way, German officials seem keen on moving forward with buying the Eurofighter Typhoon. However, according to Germany's NATO commitment, it must field jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons, and that means upgrading the Eurofighter to handle the powerful bombs.

Reuters reported Wednesday that Germany sent the Pentagon a request in April seeking information on whether it is possible to certify the jets for nuke-carrying duties, the cost to upgrade the Typhoons, and how long it would take to complete those modifications.

Citing sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Reuters noted that the Pentagon's response will play a role in determining whether Berlin ultimately buys Eurofighters or another aircraft to replace the Tornado fleet, which is slated to begin retirement in the middle of the 2020s.

Executives from Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are visiting German officials this week to make more presentations about their product offerings in the fighter aircraft industry, according to Business Insider.

While Germany is not a nuclear power in its own right, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey have a combined stockpile of approximately 200 B-61 gravity bombs as part of NATO obligations, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Even though Berlin seems keen on picking anything but the F-35, a costly "national disaster" that some call "one of the greatest boondoggles in recent military purchasing history," the fifth-generation aircraft is, technically, scheduled to carry nukes around the time Germany's Tornado fleet retires. As a consequence, Germany wouldn't have to worry about whether an F-35 purchase would be compatible with NATO obligations.
Germany reportedly asks the U.S. Department of Defense if the Eurofighter Typhoon could be certified to carry nuclear bombs.