The bill amounts to more than 6 billion Swiss francs (6.3 billion euros). Switzerland signed the contract on Monday for the controversial purchase of 36 American F-35 fighter jets. “On September 19, 2022, the general director of armaments Martin Sonderegger and the project manager Darko Savic signed at Armasuisse in Bern the acquisition contract with the American government”, indicates a press release from Armasuisse, the agency responsible for the acquisition of defense equipment from the Swiss Confederation.
Deliveries of the F-35 A from the American Lockheed-Martin must begin in 2027, according to the current schedule, and extend until 2030. Armasuisse insists on the fact that “the prices and the contractual conditions” are fixed in the contract “bindingly and are subject to strict control”.
A narrowly approved envelope
At the same time, the agency also signed the industrial compensation contract for 2.9 billion Swiss francs which should enable Swiss industrialists to take advantage of the windfall. The signature is the final act of 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 to be one of the most modern and sophisticated combat aircraft in the world and which already equips or will equip many European countries. In September 2020, the Swiss had narrowly approved an envelope 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 life at the end of the decade.
Device choice survey
While the Swiss government asserts that the aircraft was by far the best, at the lowest price of all the jets competing for the contract (Rafale, F/A-18 and Eurofighter), the countless technical difficulties and budget overruns of the program F-35 in the United States had prompted two Swiss parliamentary committees to launch an investigation into the choice of the aircraft.
These commissions did not fundamentally call into question the choice, but some of its members regretted that the Federal Council did not allow itself more leeway to go beyond the technical and financial evaluation and thus be able to better take more political factors into account. Communication with European allies and in particular France has also been criticized. Recently, Greece, Germany have joined the list of European countries that want to acquire the F-35, already purchased by the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Finland, Norway, the Country -Bas and Poland.