Germany to buy Joint Strike Missile for F-35

The Bundestag has approved the acquisition of the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile in a government-to-government sale, according to a 5th June Kongsberg press release. 

The missiles will equip Germany’s F-35As, which are scheduled to be delivered from 2026. Negotiations are ongoing, but Kongsberg has indicated the deal is expected to have a value of €563 million (£474 million/$643 million). 

“The proposed acquisition is structured as a government-to-government sale between Norway and Germany, under the Naval Defence Material Cooperation between the two nations. According to the agreement, Norway’s Defence Material Agency (NDMA) will act as contract partner,” the press release states. 

The Joint Strike Missile is an important procurement for F-35 users as it can be carried internally, maintaining the platform’s external profile, which reduces the radar cross section (RCS). RCS is a measure of how detectable an object is by radar. It essentially quantifies how much radar energy an object intercepts and scatters back towards the radar receiver. 

Many factors influence an object’s RCS, but the one that is most relevant to this aspect is the impact of corners or edges, which would be created by carrying missiles underneath the aircraft’s wings. Corners and edges are good at reflecting radar energy, creating much stronger returns and likely helping the air defence crew more accurately assess what they are facing. There are a lot of other elements, like the angle from which the plane is illuminated by the radar, the material it is made of, and so on, but carrying weapons internally can reduce the RCS significantly, which helps complicate enemy air defence efforts. 

Once procured, Germany will join the US Air Force, Japan, Norway, and Australia in the Joint Strike Missile user club. Italy is also understood to have requested or indicated interest in the missile for its own F-35 fleet. Other users (including Australia) are pursuing missiles like the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER), which can be carried externally while the UK is focused on Spear 3, but integration is not expected to take place until the 2030s. Poland has also ordered 200 AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles – Extended Range (AARGM-ER), which is also certified for internal carriage.  

Germany is procuring 35 of the F-35A to replace its fleet of aging Tornados. The aircraft are expected to be used in the nuclear strike role under the NATO nuclear sharing agreement, and are one of the few types certified to carry the B61-12 gravity bomb whilst also being survivable enough to deploy them against an adversarial air defence network.  The Joint Strike Missile procurement also shows that they will likely be used in conventional strike operations as the leading edge of the Luftwaffe’s long-range strike capability. The DSCA approval for Germany’s F-35A procurement also included 75 JASSM-ER, and 105 AIM-120C-8 air-to-air missiles as well as an extensive range of other bombs and guidance kits. 

Calibre comment

The F-35 is genuinely a force multiplier for western nations, with its sensor suite, processing capability, and low RCS it is both survivable and capable when it comes to target detection. Increasingly, efforts are focused on connecting the F-35 to ground based systems so that targets identified in an adversary’s rear echelons can be engaged with rocket launchers or loitering munitions. This would help provide a more survivable form of ISTAR for land forces and maximise the utility of the F-35. However, the aircraft is built for strike missions, which it cannot do without munitions and missiles that offer long-range, survivable capabilities. Orders like this from Germany are therefore encouraging, but there are five users of the Joint Strike Missile, and 12 nations are or will be F-35 users. This indicates that there is a severe lack of internally carried missile procurements across the F-35 user group. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 5th June, 2025. The featured image shows a USAF F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 495th Fighter Squadron manoeuvring through the Mach Loop valleys, Wales. The Mach Loop is a low-level flight training area that improves pilots’ terrain-following skills and strengthens joint military interoperability. (Senior Airman Seleena Muhammad-Ali/US Air Force)