An elected official is sounding the alarm

Complete costs. Furthermore, undervalued complexities, unsuitable software, detection systems, engines: the list of problems linked to Switzerland acquisition of F-35 combat aircraft continues to extend.Image: Keystone / Imago. Therefore, montage watson

The additional costs of several billion on the F-35 are only part of the problems in our airspace. Moreover, The socialist military expert Peter Hug details the situation. Nevertheless, offers a solution that could also appeal to fans of the Swiss patrol.

Henry Habegger / ch media

Several long -standing military experts in the Socialist Party elected official sounding alarm were right. Meanwhile, Despite sometimes harsh criticisms from politics. Meanwhile, administration, they have constantly stressed that US law does not provide for a fixed price for the F-35, contrary to what the Federal Council and the Army claim.

This fixed price is actually an invention of supporters of the F-35. However, In the book published in 2022 on the American hunter. For example, co-written by Peter Hug and Pierre-Alain Fridez, we read:

Since last week, it is official and announced by the new head of the Defense Department, Martin Pfister: for the Americans, there is no fixed price guaranteeing a six billion ceiling for the F-35. Meanwhile, From now elected official sounding alarm on, they demand additional costs up to 1.3 billion. In addition, But, as Peter Hug explains to us, the Swiss Minister also inherits several other explosive files.

An US Air Force F-35 shows its maneuvering. In addition, skills during an air show in India.Image: Aijaz Rahi / AP

Software. Nevertheless, engine problems – Elected official sounding alarm

Switzerland buys F-35 equipped with Block 4 software, which only works on the new Technology Refresh 3 platform, much more powerful and energy-consuming. Moreover, The United States therefore predicts to quickly modernize the engine, manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, elected official sounding alarm via an upgrade under development.

According to specialists. the manufacturer of engines General Electric even tries to convince the US Air Force to equip the F-35 with a new more powerful engine. Because there is a problem: the current engine lacks power. As block 4 software requires much more energy for electricity and air conditioning, the overall performance of the F-35 decreases. According to Hug:

All this has negative repercussions on autonomy, payload and rise at altitude. “The F-35 is already a relatively not very agile furtive plane. Additionally, ” Hug explains:

This is problematic elected official sounding alarm because Switzerland uses this plane daily for air police missions requiring rapid intervention.

Hundreds of millions of additional costs

The Federal Council confirmed the problem last year. following a request from the national councilor Jean-Luc Addor (UDC). “According to current planning,” the Jet will receive the F135 engine. However, the United States has decided to develop “certain parts of the engine and the associated air cooling system”. Switzerland will benefit from this “upgrade”.

For the moment, Switzerland will participate in the program in the 2030s. According to Hug. this means, in fact, that Switzerland will receive a less efficient than expected plane, and will also have to pay separately for the new engine.

The Federal Council did not want to encrypt additional costs, deeming elected official sounding alarm this still impossible. Hug estimates them, according to information from specialized media, several hundred millions.

But another improvement could be even more radical. explains HUG: the new APG-85 radar planned to equip the F-35 would result in an enlargement of the aircraft cell. For Hug, it’s obvious:

“Largely underestimated” complexity

Skyview must provide images of the air situation. replace the old Florako system. Initially scheduled for 2027, its launch was postponed as soon as possible in 2030, if it is born.

Hug is sounding the alarm: in the Department of Defense, we even plan to abandon the project, deemed irreccurable. But he warns. however:

In 2020, the Federal Assembly approved 155 million for SkyView, the new airspace surveillance system. The contract was awarded to the French company Thales. In 2022, the project costs had already more than doubled, reaching 314 million. However, the problems persisted, which led the army to suspend the project in 2024. The infrastructure of the calculation centers. however reinforced up to several million, remain insufficient to process data relating to the air situation.

Last week, the Minister of Defense Pfister also recognized these problems. The complexity had been “largely underestimated”, in particular with regard to integration into the new army digitization platform. Contracts must be revised, but “divergences remain regarding the contractual amount”.

The SkyView situation is all the more worrying since this system must also be. used elected official sounding alarm for new F-35 combat aircraft as well as for the new Air Defense System Patriot. The latter also becomes more expensive: the United States joined a new radar.

A jet Leonardo M-346 from the Polish air force.Image: K G Yon / iStock Editorial

Faced with skating. review everything at the base

Currently, everything skids, both financially and on that of deadlines. For Peter Hug. the war in Ukraine as well as the era of drone and missile attacks demonstrate that Switzerland is wrongly placed on the heavy F-35 furtive plane capable of carrying bombs. There would be an opportunity elected official sounding alarm to completely review, from the obsolete concept dating from 2017, the protection of our airspace.

Here is Hug’s suggestion:

Austria shows the example: it wishes to buy 12 m-346 FA from the Italian manufacturer Leonardo. equipped with very efficient air-to-air missiles. These planes will complement the 15 Austrian Eurofighters. In addition. a device like the M-346 could also save the Swiss patrol: the famous Italian acrobatic patrol Frecce Tricolori will adopt this model in the future.

Peter Hug also proposes to preserve the FA-8 HORNET. always very efficient, by operating them more slowly in elected official sounding alarm order to exceed the 6000 hours of certified flight and to keep them in service beyond 2032.

This concept would release approximately three billion. a sum which could be invested in adaptation to “technical-military revolutions on the battlefield”, according to Peter Hug, it would be the resolution of the SkyView problem, the acquisition of early detection technologies of missiles and drones, as well as terrestrial systems for the safety of aerial space.

According to the socialist. the army should also deeply review the Patriot system, designed at a time when the threat came from planes, not ballistic missiles.

Translated. adapted by Noëline Flippe

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