The German Air and Space Force (, ) is the aerial warfare and space warfare branch of the , the armed forces of Germany. The Luftwaffe (as part of the ) was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of West Germany. After the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990, it integrated parts of the air force of the former German Democratic Republic, which itself had been founded in 1956 as part of the National People's Army. There is no organizational continuity between the current Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr and the former Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht founded in 1935, which was completely disbanded in 1945/46 after World War II. The term that is used for both the historic and the current German air force is the German-language generic designation of any air force. In 2026, the German Air Force was renamed the German Air and Space Force.
The commander of the Luftwaffe is Lieutenant General Holger Neumann. As of 2015, the Luftwaffe uses eleven air bases, two of which host no flying units. Furthermore, the Air Force has a presence at three civil airports. In 2012, the Luftwaffe had an authorized strength of 28,475 active airmen and 4,914 reservists.The Military Balance 2012, p.118
History
After World War II, German aviation was severely curtailed, and military aviation was completely forbidden after the Allied Control Commission disbanded the Nazi-era in August 1946. This changed in 1955 when West Germany joined NATO, as the Western Allies believed that Germany was needed to counter the increasing military threat posed by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. Therefore, on 9 January 1956, a new German Air Force called was founded as a branch of the new .
Many well-known fighter pilots of the s joined the new post-war air force and underwent refresher training in the US before returning to West Germany to upgrade on the latest U.S.-supplied hardware. These included Erich Hartmann, Gerhard Barkhorn, Günther Rall and Johannes Steinhoff. Steinhoff became commander-in-chief of the , with Rall as his immediate successor. Another pilot of World War II, Josef Kammhuber, also made a significant career in the post-war , retiring in 1962 as Chief Inspector of the Air Force ().
Despite the partial reliance of the new air force on airmen who had served in the s air arm, there was no organizational continuity between the old and the new . This is in line with the policy of the on the whole, which does not consider itself a successor of the and does not follow the traditions of any other previous German military organization.
First years The first volunteers of the arrived at the Nörvenich Air Base in January 1956. In the same year, the was given with its first aircraft, the US-made Republic F-84 Thunderstreak. At first, the was divided into two operational commands, one in Northern Germany, aligned with the British-led Second Allied Tactical Air Force, and the other in Southern Germany, aligned with the American-led Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force.
In 1957, the took command of the Army Air Defence Troops located in Rendsburg and began the expansion of its own air defense missile capabilities. The first squadron to be declared operational was the Air Transport Wing 61 at Erding Air Base, followed by the 31st Fighter-Bomber Squadron at Büchel Air Base. In 1958, the received its first conscripts. In 1959, the declared the 11th Missile Group in Kaufbeuren armed with MGM-1 Matador surface-to-surface tactical nuclear cruise missiles operational. The same year Fighter Wing 71 () equipped with Canadair CL-13 fighters became operational at Ahlhorner Heide Air Base. All aircraft sported—and continue to sport—the Iron Cross on the fuselage, harking back to the pre-March 1918 days of World War I, while the national flag of West Germany is displayed on the tail.
Cold War
In 1963, the saw its first major reorganization. The two operational Air Force Group Commands – Command North and Command South were both split into two mixed Air Force divisions containing flying and air defense units and one Support division. Additionally, a 7th Air Force division was raised in Schleswig-Holstein containing flying units, missile units, support units, and the German Navy's naval aviation and placed under command of Allied Forces Baltic Approaches.
In 1960, the received its first Lockheed F-104 Starfighter jets. The Starfighter remained in service for the entire duration of the Cold War, with the last being taken out of service in 1991. The received 916 Starfighters, 292 of which crashed, resulting in the deaths of 116 pilots. The disastrous service record of the Starfighter led to the Starfighter crisis in 1966 as a reaction to 27 Starfighter crashes with 17 casualties in 1965 alone. The West German public referred to the Starfighter as the (widow-maker), (flying coffin), (falling fighter) and (tent peg, literally "ground nail").
On 25 August 1966, the German Defence Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel relieved the Chief Inspector of the Air Force Generalleutnant Werner Panitzki, and transferred Colonel Erich Hartmann, commanding officer of the 71st Fighter Squadron, as both had publicly criticized the acquisition of the Starfighter as a "purely political decision". On 2 September 1966, Johannes Steinhoff, with Günther Rall as deputy, became the new Chief Inspector of the Air Force. Steinhoff and his deputy Günther Rall noted that the non-German F-104s proved much safer. The Americans blamed the high loss rate of the F-104s on the extremely low-level and aggressive flying of German pilots rather than any faults in the aircraft. Steinhoff and Rall went to America to learn to fly the Starfighter under Lockheed instruction and noted some specifics in the training (a lack of mountain and foggy-weather training), combined with handling capabilities (rapidly initiated, high G turns) of the aircraft that could cause accidents. Steinhoff and Rall, therefore, changed the training regimen for the F-104 pilots, and the accident rates fell to those comparable or better than other air forces. They also brought about the high level of training and professionalism seen today throughout the , and the start of a strategic direction for pilots to engage in tactical and combat training outside of Germany. However, the F-104 never lived down its reputation as a "widow-maker", and was replaced by the with the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter and the Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber in many units much earlier than in other national air forces.
On Steinhoff's initiative, the opened the German Air Force Command USA/Canada () in Fort Bliss, where the trained its missile and air defense troops, and pilots received their basic training. At the same time, the opened a Tactical Training Command in Beja, Portugal, where pilots were trained in Close Air Support missions.
Between 1967 and 1970, the undertook a major reorganization of its forces. The two operational commands were disbanded and the four mixed Air Force divisions were divided into two flying divisions and two air defense divisions. The remainder of the units were divided into functional commands: Air Force Operation Command (), with the signal regiments, the radar, and the signals intelligence units Air Force Training Command (), with the schools and training regiments Air Force Support Command (), with all logistical, maintenance, and repair units, and the Material Office of the Air Force Air Force Transport Command (), with the air transport squadrons.
Over the next decade, the received large amounts of new equipment, including in 1968 the first C-160 Transall transport planes, in 1974 the F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers, in 1978 the first Alpha Jet Version A light attack jets and in 1979 the first of 212 Panavia Tornado fighters.
In 1986, the air defense forces began to replace their Nike Hercules missile systems with state-of-the-art surface-to-air missile systems: first to arrive was the MIM-104 Patriot system, followed one year later by Roland short-range missile system.
Nuclear sharing Germany is participating in NATO's nuclear sharing concept. Nuclear sharing is a concept that involves member countries without nuclear weapons of their own in the planning for the use of nuclear weapons by NATO, and in particular, provides for the armed forces of these countries to be involved in delivering these weapons in the event of their use.
Soon after its founding, the German Air Force began to train with the US Seventeenth Air Force in handling, arming, and delivering nuclear weapons. At first, the F-104 Starfighter was intended to be used solely as a nuclear delivery platform, armed with nuclear air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, as well as nuclear bombs. The Tornado was the second air force plane fielded that was capable of delivering nuclear ammunition, although it was limited to delivering B61 nuclear bombs.
From 1965 through 1970, Missile Wings 1 and 2 fielded 16 Pershing 1 missile systems with nuclear warheads under U.S. Army custody. In 1970, the system was upgraded to Pershing 1a with 72 missiles. Although not directly affected by the 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the unilaterally removed the Pershing 1a missiles from its inventory in 1991, and the missiles were destroyed. At the end of the Cold War, more than 100,000 soldiers served in the .
The United States still lends nuclear weapons for hypothetical use by the under the nuclear sharing agreement. In 2007, 22 B61 nuclear bombs were still kept in Germany, stored at the Büchel Air Base for use with Tornado IDS fighter-bombers of the Tactical Air Force Wing 33. The American nuclear weapons formerly stored at Nörvenich Air Base, Ramstein Air Base, and Memmingen Air Base were all withdrawn from Germany during the mid-and-late-1990s.
By international treaties between Germany and the "Big Four" powers in Europe (that formerly occupied Germany), East Germany was a nuclear-free zone. The Big Four powers are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France, and the latter three have no nuclear weapons in Germany anymore.
Reunification
After German reunification in October 1990, the aircraft and personnel of the former GDR air force, the were taken. The remnants of the East German Air Force were placed under the newly formed 5th Air Force Division () in Strausberg. In 1993, the division was renamed 3rd Air Force Division (), moved to Gatow in Berlin and in 1995 assigned to NATO. By 1990, the East German plane markings had been replaced by the Air Force Iron Cross, the first time Soviet-built aircraft had served in a NATO air force. However, as the Luftstreitkräfte der NVA were supplied exclusively with Eastern Bloc-produced aircraft, such as the Sukhoi Su-17, MiG-21, MiG-23 and MiG-29 fighters, most of the equipment was not compatible with the West German NATO equipment and therefore taken out of service and sold or given to new members of NATO in Eastern Europe, such as Poland and the Baltic states.