Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe, component of the German armed forces tasked with the air defense of Germany and fulfillment of the country’s airpower commitments abroad.

The Luftwaffe was formally created in 1935, but military aviation had existed in the shadows in Germany since the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles had banned Germany from possessing warplanes, so much of the groundwork for the Luftwaffe was laid by civilian aircraft production and Freikorps paramilitary groups. By the beginning of World War II, the Luftwaffe was arguably the best air force in the world, and its robust role within the combined-arms strategy utilized by German military planners allowed for the use of blitzkrieg tactics against overmatched Allied armies. The structure of the Luftwaffe very much reflected the whims of its commander, Hermann Göring, and over three million men served in air force, air defense, and paratrooper units from 1939 to 1945. That incarnation of the German air force was disbanded by victorious Allied powers in 1946.

The service was reconstituted in 1956 as an integral part of the NATO defense network in central Europe. Outfitted primarily with American aircraft, West German pilots also received flight training in the United States. While that demonstrated the strength of the relationship between the two countries, it was also rooted in practicality, as locations such as Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico boasted more airspace and better consistent flying weather than could be found in Germany. As a result of the reunification of Germany in 1990 and the fading of Cold War threats, the modern German air force—composed of both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft—is focused primarily on its role within the defense structures of NATO and the European Union. With more than 40,000 troops and some 300 combat-capable aircraft, the Luftwaffe demonstrated that German airpower remained a potent force through its participation in NATO missions in Kosovo (1998–99) and Afghanistan (2001–14).

The maturation of Germany’s domestic aerospace industry eased the Luftwaffe’s reliance on American technology, and the Eurofighter Typhoon, a multirole attack aircraft built by the EADS consortium, served as the Luftwaffe’s principal combat aircraft in the 21st century. Budget cuts led to a deterioration of force preparedness in the early 21st century, however, and in 2014 it was estimated that fewer than half of Germany’s fighter, close air support, and airlift assets were combat ready.