F-35A stealth jets operated by many NATO countries have been certified to carry nuclear weapons, becoming the first fifth-generation aircraft to be cleared for the fitting of such bombs.
The Lockheed Martin-made F-35A Joint Strike Fighter jet has been approved to carry B61-12 thermonuclear bombs, Russ Goemaere, a spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office, told Breaking Defense. The move will mean that the stealth multirole jets will be officially “dual-capable,” able to carry both conventional and nuclear weapons, the digital magazine reported.
This makes the F-35A the first of fifth-generation aircraft to be nuclear-capable, Goemaere said. It received nuclear certification in mid-October, months ahead of schedule, and will give the “U.S. and NATO with a critical capability that supports U.S. extended deterrence commitments earlier than anticipated,” he added.
F-35A aircraft will be the core of NATO’s dual-capable aircraft capability, Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told Newsweek.
The F-35A, equipped with B61-12 nuclear bombs, will become the standard for the alliance’s dual-capable aircraft mission, the new aircraft “replacing older and less survivable types of aircraft,” Barrie said.
The Netherlands’ military said back in November that its F-35s had received “initial certification” for deterrence. The country operates only F-35As.
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The F-35A is the most widely-used variant of the F-35 series. Singapore announced late last month that it would purchase eight F-35As to replace its aging fleet of F-16 jets.
The F-35B, used by the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.K. military and Italy’s air force, is designed to land vertically and take off in short distances. The F-35C was built specifically with aircraft carriers in mind.
A total of 18 countries participate in the F-35 program. In July 2023, former Lockheed Martin F-35 general manager, Tom Burbage, told Newsweek that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine pushed several nations to turn to the F-35 in a rapidly changing security environment.
Some of these countries had been on the fence about procuring F-35s before early 2022, added Burbage. As large and influential militaries across the globe move towards F-35s, “that does free up the F-16” for air forces such as Ukraine’s, he said.
F-16s are “slowly becoming ‘surplus’ because of the F-35 orders,” retired Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, a former senior commander in the U.K.’s Royal Air Force (RAF), told Newsweek at the time.
Ukrainian pilots are expected to take to the skies above the war-torn country in the next few months. Kyiv could deploy the first of its F-16s against Russia by July this year, The New York Times reported on Monday.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.