Bern: Purchase of F-35: Switzerland goes from “fixed price” to blurred price

“The United States is not willing to modify its position, which prevents Switzerland from imposing the fixed price for the F-35A combat aircraft. This is the conclusion of the discussions which took place this summer “During its meeting of the day, the Federal Council finally confirmed that the F-35A bill would take the elevator, as several media have already announced so far.

According to the press release released today, many discussions took place during the summer “with high-ranking representatives of the White House” concerning the price of the F-35A. The American Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and the federal adviser Martin Pfister, chief of the DDPS, even had an interview on this subject.

Summary: “Switzerland cannot impose the fixed price, notes the Federal Council. These discussions have clearly shown that the United States is not willing to change positions. Based on the discussions, Switzerland must accept that the price per batch of production corresponds to the negotiated value between the US government and Lockheed Martin ”.

The Federal Council recognizes today that this famous “fixed price” for the 36 planes, for a total amount of 6 billion francs, has no contractual value with the Americans. However, it was for months the flagship argument of the old DDPS chef, Viola Amherd, to acquire the plane in complete financial security.

The new situation therefore becomes confused: “It is not yet possible, writes the Federal Council, at present, to determine the exact total cost of the acquisition, which will largely depend on the future development of inflation in the United States, the evolution of the prices of raw materials on the world markets and other factors such as the price increases resulting from customs duties imposed by the United States on a global scale”.

So we went from a “fixed price” to a blurred price. With so many parameters to take into account, one wonders how the argument of the “fixed price” could be at this point used to reassure Swiss public opinion. “This results in the potential additional cost for the acquisition of F-35A between 650 million and 1.3 billion Swiss francs,” recognizes the Federal Council.

However, he maintains his project to acquire the F-35A combat aircraft: “The Federal Council intends to protect Switzerland against air threats with this plane which has a significant technological advance compared to other devices and which is now widespread in European countries. The Federal Council therefore instructed the DDPS to deepen the work on different options. The DDPS will submit to the Federal Council, by the end of November 2025, a proposal concerning the rest of the procedure.

Recall that the Swiss people voted an envelope of 6 billion francs to buy combat aircraft in 2020 has a very small majority of 50.1%. It was the Federal Council which then chose the F-35 to the summer of 2021.