2 days ago
German F-35s Will Be Armed With Stealthy Joint Strike Missiles
Germany plans to buy Joint Strike Missile (JSM) cruise missiles from Norway to arm its forthcoming fleet of F-35A stealth fighters. While these jets were primarily chosen as delivery platforms for U.S.-owned nuclear gravity bombs, under a long-standing NATO agreement, Germany is increasingly viewing the F-35A as part of an expanding conventional long-range strike arsenal.
Plans to arm German and Norwegian F-35As with the JSM, which is manufactured by Kongsberg, were announced today by Norwegian Minister of Defense Tore O. Sandvik. According to a statement from the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, a contract for the missiles is expected to be signed with Germany in the first half of this year. The deal is expected to be worth around $645 million, but the total number of missiles involved was not disclosed.
Germany will become the fifth country to acquire JSM, after Norway, Japan, Australia, and the United States.
In the past, we have discussed the attributes of the JSM and how it differs from the related Naval Strike Missile (NSM):
'JSM is an enlarged air-launched derivative of the sea and ground-launched Naval Strike Missile (NSM), which has been steadily growing in popularity, including in the U.S. military. The JSM, which Kongsberg developed in cooperation with U.S. defense contractor Raytheon (as they also did with NSM), has a stated maximum range of around 350 miles. This is cut roughly in half when the missile is employed in its low-altitude penetration mode.'
The JSM, which has a 260-pound warhead, can use GPS, INS, and terrain mapping to navigate its way to a designated target area. The terrain mapping component of the guidance suite gives the missile a valuable additional way to get where it is going, even in GPS-denied environments — something that the war in Ukraine has shown is an ever-more likely possibility in future conflicts.
The agile JSM, which has reduced signature (stealthy) features, also has an imaging infrared seeker giving it very precise targeting capability in the terminal phase of flight. The seeker works passively, which also makes it immune to radiofrequency jamming and detection.
A two-way datalink means JSMs can receive additional targeting information during the mid-course portion of their flight or be re-tasked entirely.
Critically, the JSM is sized so that it can be accommodated internally in the F-35A's weapon bays, allowing the jets to employ these weapons while staying as stealthy as possible.
In the case of the U.S. Air Force, which has also bought JSM for its F-35As, the missile was ostensibly acquired as an interim stand-off anti-ship capability until the jets get the larger AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). However, the JSMs can also engage targets on land.
In the German context, the JSMs will therefore provide a powerful conventional long-range strike capability against ground targets, but they will also reintroduce an anti-shipping strike capability that was lost when the Luftwaffe retired the Kormoran missile. This Cold War-era weapon had previously armed German Tornado IDS swing-wing strike aircraft.
With growing tensions with Russia, especially in the highly strategic Baltic region, maritime missions and anti-surface warfare are making something of a resurgence.
In choosing the JSM, Germany is getting a missile that has already been developed, with the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) funding its integration onto the F-35A. In late April of this year, the Norwegian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the first JSM had been delivered to the RNoAF at Ørland Air Station. At the same time, it was announced that all 52 F-35As ordered by Norway had been delivered. With this, Norway became the first country to receive all of its planned F-35s.
Under the JSM deal announced today, Norway will purchase the missiles from Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace on behalf of Germany. The Norwegian Defense Materials Agency and its German sister organization BAAINBw will serve as the contracting parties in the government sale, bringing closer strategic cooperation with Germany.
The joint JSM plans announced today extend an existing bilateral Naval Defense Material Cooperation agreement between Germany and Norway.
This agreement was previously used for the NSM and the forthcoming 3SM — a supersonic naval 'super missile' to arm warships belonging to both countries. It also covers joint acquisition, operation, and maintenance of the new Type 212CD submarines for both countries.
In the case of Germany, there are also plans to acquire the AGM-158B JASSM-Extended Range, or JASSM-ER. This is a land attack cruise missile, but unlike the JSM, it will not fit in the internal weapons bays on the F-35, and it is not capable of engaging ships. The JASSM-ER has a publicly stated range of at least 575 miles, compared to a range of around 330 miles for the initial AGM-158A JASSM.
In March 2024, Reuters reported that Germany had begun the process of acquiring 75 JASSM-ER missiles at a cost of around $8.67 billion. It's been suggested that these weapons could ultimately replace the Taurus air-launched conventional cruise missile, now used by German Tornados, and which have long been suggested could be transferred to Ukraine. That transfer hasn't happened, with Berlin so far having blocked such a move, despite Kyiv's requests for them. Regardless, the Taurus will need to be replaced in the future.
So far, it seems that Germany has not signed a contract to buy JASSM-ER missiles.
Last October, Germany announced plans to acquire 600 examples of a new version of the Taurus, known as the Taurus Neo. While the missile would require a significant redesign to fit in the F-35A's internal weapons bays, it may well be adopted as external armament, either in addition to the JASSM-ER or as an alternative. Germany may also decide to have the Taurus Neo arm the Eurofighter EF2000, which can only carry external stores.
Either way, new standoff weapons combined with the F-35A will bring a major boost to Germany's long-range strike capabilities.
This is in addition to the nuclear role for which the F-35A was chosen, in favor of different combinations of the Eurofighter, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and EA-18G Growler. Germany has said it aims to replace the Tornado with 35 examples of the F-35A by 2030.
Already, Germany's decision to buy the F-35A was a significant one, demonstrating a new willingness to spend on military modernization and otherwise improve its readiness after years of decline since the end of the Cold War. The country's push to drastically expand its standoff strike capabilities has also seen it sign an agreement with the United Kingdom to develop a new 'deep precision strike' weapon with a range of over 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles), as you can read about here. This is a project that reflects growing ambitions among various European NATO members to field long-range strike capabilities, faced by a growing Russian threat on the alliance's eastern flank.
Now, with the JSM lined up to arm its F-35As, potentially to be joined by the JASSM-ER, Germany will have a highly flexible and survivable — albeit small — force of stealth jets that can undertake nuclear and conventional strike as well as anti-shipping.
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