What happens when your own armed forces no longer dominate the airspace can currently be experienced in Ukraine.

Aside from hastily delivered shoulder-launched anti-aircraft weapons, there is little protection left against the attacking Russian warplanes.

Strikes against Russian rocket launchers or radar installations are practically impossible, and Russian bombers cannot be countered by interceptors.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Germany is in a better situation and should now get new combat aircraft as quickly as possible.

Contrary to what was often conceived, financially well thought out and presented to the public in 2020, it should not be F-18 "Super Hornet" aircraft after all.

Instead, the choice fell on the F-35.

The aircraft is much more modern, but also significantly more expensive and prone to failure than the F-18.

The federal government has probably also moved away from the plan to purchase a “growler” version of the F-18 for electronic warfare.

Instead, the corresponding Eurofighter is to be equipped for this – as soon as research and development at Airbus allow it.

The company has been fighting for this order for years and now probably successfully.

It is also expected to have advantages for the development of the future German-French-Spanish combat aircraft (FCAS).

Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) recently claimed that there should be no more "gold-rim solutions".

But that is exactly what the now planned F-35 purchase looks like.

Germany is not alone in this.

Several other European countries have also opted for this "Ferrari", including Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland.

Israel is also procuring 50 Joint Strike Fighters.

Hardly own anti-aircraft

On the ground, things look significantly worse.

The Bundeswehr currently has hardly any air defense of its own.

The army air defense was decommissioned ten years ago, shortly before the Russian annexation of Crimea.

More than 420 anti-aircraft tanks were abolished, leaving around 20 Ozelot vehicles on which the same Stinger missiles can be mounted, which have now been delivered to Ukraine from Bundeswehr stocks.

There are also the proven but outdated Patriot systems, which can fight approaching attackers from a greater distance.

Its modernization, which costs several billion euros, was delayed just as long as the procurement of its own tactical air defense system (TLVS) developed in Germany, the cost of which was around seven to eight billion euros.

The Bundeswehr also has practically no drone defense of its own.

There would be a quick solution here with the Skyranger system, which can be mounted on Boxer combat vehicles.

However, it has not been decided or ordered in the past two years.

The Nagornyi Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan made it clear that modern, armed drones can be used to eliminate entire armored battalions.

The Bundeswehr, on the other hand, cannot attack with armed drones, nor can their army units fight them effectively.

The situation is generally better in the Air Force.

Although it also only has a fraction of the number of aircraft it used to have, there are still 140 Eurofighters and around 70 Tornados ready to help protect the alliance - at least in theory.

In practice, the status of the remaining tornadoes is rather poor, but things are looking a little better for the Eurofighter squadrons, such as Squadron 31 "Boelke" in Nörvenich near Cologne, thanks to intensive efforts in recent years.