Switzerland is sticking with its F-35A fighter jet order but wants to reduce the number from 36 to around 30 – Copyright AFP Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo<\/p>\n
Robin MILLARD<\/p>\n
Switzerland announced Friday it wanted to buy 30 US F-35A fighter jets rather than 36 after Washington hiked the price, and said its broader defence set-up needed repurposing to face current threats.<\/p>\n
The militarily neutral country also said it was looking at buying a European surface-to-air defence system to go alongside the delayed Patriot system on order from the United States.<\/p>\n
Outlining the tense geopolitical situation in Europe, the landlocked nation furthermore said it needed to gear up to face hybrid threats.<\/p>\n
The F-35A combat aircraft \u2014 already used by the US Air Force and several European countries \u2014 was chosen by Switzerland in June 2021, over the Airbus Eurofighter, the F\/A-18 Super Hornet by Boeing, and French firm Dassault\u2019s Rafale.<\/p>\n
But Bern and Washington have been quibbling over the final price of the jets, bought to replace the ageing Swiss fleet.<\/p>\n
In June last year, Switzerland said the United States wanted Bern to assume additional costs \u2014 cited as high inflation and surging raw material and energy prices.<\/p>\n
However, Bern wanted to stick to the agreed price of just over six billion Swiss francs ($7.7 billion) \u2014 an amount that was approved in a 2020 referendum.<\/p>\n
Defence Minister Martin Pfister told a press conference Friday that an additional 1.1 billion francs would have been required \u201cfor the 36 aircraft initially planned\u201d.<\/p>\n
The government is now looking at buying \u201capproximately 30 F-35As\u201d, said Pfister.<\/p>\n
The exact number will depend on contract negotiations between the US government and manufacturers Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Hybrid threats \u2013<\/p>\n
Switzerland\u2019s long-standing position has been one of well-armed military neutrality and the European country has mandatory conscription for men.<\/p>\n
Bern painted a grim picture of the current security climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe global security situation and Switzerland\u2019s geopolitical environment have deteriorated in recent years,\u201d the government said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe war in Ukraine, increasing hybrid threats, cyberattacks, disinformation and espionage are also having an impact on Switzerland.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Alpine country is \u201cnot sufficiently equipped to counter the most likely threats,\u201d which it said were hybrid warfare and attacks from a distance.<\/p>\n
It blamed previous cost-cutting, price increases and long delivery times on the international arms market.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Patriot wait time \u2013<\/p>\n
Last July, Washington told Bern that the five Patriot units it had on order were being reprioritised and heading to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to current knowledge, the delay is four to five years,\u201d the government said Friday.<\/p>\n
While Switzerland \u201cis sticking to the procurement of Patriot systems due to the importance of the ability to defend against attacks from a distance,\u201d it will look for an additional system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis reduces dependence on a single supply chain or a single country, and on the other hand, it can be used to better ensure availability,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The government said the Swiss military reckons it needs 31 billion Swiss francs to strengthen the country\u2019s defence and security.<\/p>\n
\u201cA temporary increase in VAT is intended to make it possible to provide the armed forces\u2026 with the financial resources to better protect the population and the country against the most likely threats,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The government is therefore proposing raising the VAT rate by 0.8 percentage points for 10 years, and by creating an \u201carmament fund, which would be financed by the VAT rise and a slice of the army\u2019s regular budget\u201d.<\/p>\n
The government hopes a referendum on plan can be held in mid-2027 so that the temporary VAT increase can take effect in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Switzerland is sticking with its F-35A fighter jet order but wants to reduce the number from 36 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[104,9095,16411,3824,17,714,16412],"class_list":["post-26821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bern","tag-bern","tag-defence","tag-hide","tag-industry","tag-switzerland","tag-us","tag-weaponry"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116183559215824945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}