F-35 "Will get pilots SHOT DOWN"

[MH]

Originally Posted by Catfish

It is strange that the french air force and the Israelis flew their Mirages with improved Heinkel jet engines, the latter also forming the basis for the Bell X-5
(no this is not a Bell X5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_P.1101), and Germany had to buy planes and jet engines from abroad

Considering the situation Germany had been shortly after ww2 not so strange but maybe ironical.
In the 60s Germany just had started to recover from the war and building its industrial strength

It is also not so strange that western Germany was equipped with cold war bomber interceptors like f 104.
I suppose the war plan doctrine for that time would call just for that sice germany was in hot spot for the west - east conflict.

^ It's nickname indeed was "Witwenmacher"/widowmaker, in the european part of the NATO.