Switzerland signed the contract on Monday for the controversial purchase of 36 US F-35 fighter jets for more than 6 billion Swiss francs (6.3 billion euros).
Deliveries of the F-35A from the US Lockheed-Martin are due to start in 2027, according to the current schedule, and extend until 2030. Armasuisse insists that “the prices and contractual conditions” are set in the contract “in a binding and They are subject to strict control.
At the same time, the agency also signed the 2.9 billion Swiss franc industrial compensation contract that should allow Swiss industrialists to take advantage of the windfall. The signing is the final act in a long saga to provide the Swiss Air Force with new aircraft.
The Federal Council had decided at the end of June 2021 to acquire the F-35, considered one of the most modern and sophisticated combat aircraft in the world and which already equips or will equip many European countries.
Preferred to Rafale
In September 2020, the Swiss narrowly approved an endowment of 6 billion francs to allow the air forces to acquire a new fleet, the aircraft currently in service – F/A 18 and F5 – reaching the end of their useful life at end of the decade.
While the Swiss government claims that the aircraft was by far the best, lowest priced of all the jets competing for the contract (Rafale, F/A-18 and Eurofighter), the myriad technical difficulties and budget overruns of the F-35 program in the United States had prompted two Swiss parliamentary committees to launch an investigation into the choice of aircraft.
These commissions did not fundamentally question the choice, but some of their members regretted that the Federal Council did not allow itself more room to go beyond the technical and financial evaluation and thus be able to better take into account more political factors. Communication with European allies, and in particular with France, has also been criticized.
Recently, Greece, Germany have joined the list of European countries that want to acquire the F35, already acquired by the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Poland.
Source: BFM TV
