BERLIN – Switzerland’s order of F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin will be significantly more expensive than originally expected, prompting introspection in Bern about possibly altering the procurement.
The original Swiss plan was for 36 jets of the F-35A variant at a fixed price of 6 billion Swiss francs ($7.55 billion). The procurement was decided in 2021 and the contract signed following parliamentary approval in September 2022, with the scope including the aircraft, logistics, training, ammunition and required infrastructure. The delivery was set for 2027 through 2030.
However, negotiations between Bern and Washington, including those between the two countries’ defense ministers, were unable to secure a fixed price, the Swiss government reported in August. Instead, this summer it was announced that the buy would be anywhere from CHF 650 million ($817 million) to CHF 1.3 billion ($1.63 billion) more expensive than initially planned, according to Swiss government estimates.
“The upper estimate contains a sizeable risk buffer, given the current economic uncertainties,” the Swiss defense ministry’s procurement office, Armasuisse, told Defense News. They declined to name details about the contract with the U.S.
The Pentagon has cited inflation, rising raw material prices and supply chain disruptions as issues that led to price increases for F-35 production. The Trump administration’s tariffs have also been cited as contributing to the increased cost per jet.
Despite the setback, Switzerland remains publicly committed to procuring the F-35, the government reaffirmed in an email. “The question is not whether the project will be continued, but rather an in-depth examination of the options for how to deal with the increased costs of procurement,” defense spokesperson Kaj-Gunnar Sievert said.
A referendum held in 2020 narrowly approved the purchase of new fighter jets for the set price of CHF 6 billion, with 50.1% of voters in favor of the deal to replace Switzerland’s aging F/A-18C/D Hornets from the 1990s.
Some, including several parties opposed to the deal, have called for a new referendum “so that the population can stop the procurement,” as the co-president of the Swiss social democrats put it.
The U.S. has slapped Switzerland with the highest tariffs in Europe, at 39%, significantly reducing political goodwill toward Washington. Swiss political parties across the spectrum have reacted with unprecedented criticism of US trade policy. The Federal Council, Switzerland’s seven-member collective head of state, has expressed “great regret” about the tariffs and criticized the punitive measures.
Meanwhile, a parliamentary commission has been tasked with finding out what went wrong in the procurement process for the F-35, the Swiss defense ministry confirmed in an email. It will “examine the background of the contractual situation that led to a misunderstanding with the American authorities,” Sievert said.
The commission is expected to deliver a report by November, he added. A separate working group created by the defense ministry will also make proposals on how to proceed from a military standpoint.
Notably, these won’t include any suggestion of exiting the contract altogether and procuring a different aircraft. “No alternative aircraft are being considered,” Sievert said. Nor will the procurement process be restarted from scratch.
But the door remains open to buy fewer aircraft. The working group is tasked with reevaluating the specifications for a new fighter jet to ensure Switzerland’s future air defense, which were written up in 2017. “In this context, they are also taking a look at the size of the fleet,” Sievert said.
Linus Höller is Defense News’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds a master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.
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