Germany has taken delivery of its first F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jet, manufactured by Lockheed Martin (the US aerospace giant), during a ceremony at the company's production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Berlin ordered 35 of the advanced aircraft in 2022 — the year Russia invaded Ukraine — to replace its ageing Tornado fleet and fulfil its NATO nuclear-sharing obligations after decades of relatively low defence investment. The delivery comes as European NATO members broadly accelerate military spending, having agreed in 2025 to meet a target of devoting five percent of GDP to security-related expenditure by 2035.