Not that it should surprise anybody. And not that it is the first time that evidence for this appears. But now it looks like it's about to get official soon:

The promise of the Defense Departement and the Federal Council that the F-35 jet will be delivered to us at a fixed price of 6 billion turns out to be a pipe dream (aka lie).

They said it 1000 times: the U.S. has guaranteed us a fixed price. Cost overrun is absolutely impossible.

The only problem: the U.S. doesn't know anything about that fixed price and is now already increasing the bill because of "higher production costs".

But who is right? Is there a guaranteed fixed price in the contracts or not? Have our politicians made that up and blatantly lied to our now surprised Pikachu faces? Or are the Americans breaching the contract?

Well, well, who knows? (Ok, probably a lot of us :p)

The journalists point out that the Swiss Federal Audit Office already noted in 2021 that they don't know why the Federal Council thinks that there's a guaranteed fixed price in the contracts. And so have other experts back then, who argued, that the U.S. never does fixed prices.

So far the new Secretary of Defence is still saying "our opinion is that it is a fixed price" but "if this should change, we're going to inform the public about it". Fixed things that change? Interesting concept.

My bet is that we'll probably don't have to wait for too long before he'll have to inform the public. But don't worry… his predecessor is now gone and therefore can act as the lying scapegoat while he's just the innocent bearer of bad news, right? Of course, as always, nobody will ever have to take responsibility.

Sources:

https://www.watson.ch/schweiz/usa/665705153-beschaffung-von-kampfjet-f-35-soll-deutlich-teurer-werden (German)

https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/kampfjet-f-35-aus-den-usa-schweiz-drohen-mehrkosten-von-ueber-einer-milliarde-franken (German)

https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/2025/article/f-35-le-cout-pour-la-suisse-pourrait-depasser-d-un-milliard-le-budget-prevu-28920497.html (French)

by b00nish

13 comments

  1. So that means that the military has to save at other things, right? right?

  3. Keep in mind that is before TR-3/engine core update. And the US will demand to upgrade the security at our air fields. Who know what other demands the US will come up with.
    All that drama so we can have a stealth fighter/bomber to do air policing. Brilliant.

  4. We‘ll probably just have to wait until the referendjm or whatever about dropping F35 was sunk.

    Then, we will hear that the price hike will exceed the cost of dropping out.

  5. Hey but at least Switzerland did not buy them from the reliable partner with which they have 50% of their trade and that literally surrounds them. Because EU=bad.

  6. Imagine they would’ve given Pilatus the same budget, to develop a fighter that is capable of air policing and turning tight circles within the CH airspace …

    An absolute waste if money on a plane we don’t need with a partner that isn’t one.

    They should invest the same into Swiss companies to develop propper AA systems.

  8. And the Cherry on the top: the f35 is the by far loudest of all the ones tested. Not even close. At least we know that detail for sure since the Bundesgericht finally allowed the Empa to release this data.

  9. This was such a bad decision on almost all aspects, it is crazy

  10. that should invalidade the popular decision to buy these things, no?

  11. It was obvous from the begining it would not be a fixed price for the USA. However the people voted yes to 6 Billion Franks No More! Amherd said the Swiss got a good price!

    Well we bought the F35A because its not a VTOL version which is cheaper than the F35B VTOL which obviously would have been ideal in Switzerland. Amherd did not report this!

    Years ago Swiss Airforce tested the Harrieer and highly reccomended it. It was denied because the deal was with Land Rover vehicles and the Swiss government prefered Puch vehicles!

  12. It’s still incredible that the people allowed a fighter jet purchase by the tiniest margin (50.1%, only a 9000 votes difference) and our government considered that this is a blank check to buy the by-far most expensive military plane on the market. And they even lied about the costs to try to silence anyone who had questions.

    We are a country of consensus, a 49.9% opposition was a clear message that the people don’t want to spend billions on overpriced toys. At 50.1% vs 49.9%, any true swiss government would have gone for the cheapest option, in order to respect the wishes of both halves of the population.

    Why did this not happen here? Were there any Quid Pro Quos that we are not aware of?

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