Refusing to assume additional costs linked to inflation to acquire F-35 combat aircraft, Switzerland publicly displayed its disagreement with the United States.
Would the contract have lead in the wing? Switzerland reported on the price of the 36 American F-35 combat aircraft on Wednesday on Wednesday that the Alpine country has bought, saying that the United States asked Bern to assume additional costs related to inflation.
“A settlement of disputes by legal means being formally excluded, the solution must be negotiated,” the Swiss Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The Federal Council “defends the validity [du] Price and maintains its intention to buy the F-35A “.
According to Bern, Switzerland and the United States have contractually agreed with a firm price. “This has been officially confirmed, both by the expert reports of several studies of lawyers and by the American Embassy in Bern,” said the press release.
The Swiss government “defends the validity of the agreed firm price, while the DSCA (the American Cooperation Agency for Defense and Security is of the opinion that Switzerland must assume these additional costs due to the high inflation that the United States has known in recent years and at the highest increase in prices of raw materials and energy linked to the Pandemic of Covid-19”, explains the Ministry of Defense.
“Solve this problem”
The Swiss government has decided to continue diplomatic discussions and instructed the Ministry of Defense to submit a concrete proposal to it “to resolve this problem”.
The Federal Department of Defense, Protection of Population and Sports (DDPS), said in its press release in August 2024, the Joint Program Office (JPO), responsible for projects related to the F-35, “announced in Armasuisse (the arms acquisition agency, editor’s note) that there could be an additional cost, without further details”.
A few months later, in February 2025, the DSCA “informed Switzerland in writing that the agreed firm price was based, according to her, on a misunderstanding, without quantifying additional costs”.
“A breach of the contract with the American government would have considerable consequences. It would prevent Switzerland from guaranteeing the security of its airspace and its population from 2032, since the current F/A-18 combat aircraft arrive at the end of their duration of use,” warns the Ministry of Defense.
A long -term file
Switzerland signed on September 19, 2022 the contract on the controversial purchase of these American lockheed Martin combat aircraft for more than 6 billion Swiss francs (6.4 billion euros). Deliveries must start in 2027.
Purchase is the final act of a long saga to provide the Swiss Air Force with new aircraft, as part of the Air 2030 plan.
The government had decided at the end of June 2021 to acquire the F-35, considered one of the most modern and sophisticated combat aircraft in the world and which already equips or will equip many European countries.
In September 2020, the Swiss narrowly approved an envelope of 6 billion francs to allow the air forces to acquire a new fleet, the devices currently in service – F/A 18 and F -5 – arriving at the end of life at the end of the decade.
If the Swiss government claims that the plane was by far the best, at the lowest price of all the jets in the running for the contract (Rafale, F/A-18 and Eurofighter), the countless technical difficulties and budgetary exceeding of the F-35 program in the United States had prompted two Swiss parliamentary commissions to launch an investigation into the choice of the aircraft.
Switzerland had initially selected the combat aircraft Gripen, produced by the Swedish manufacturer SAAB, in 2012. A rejected by popular voting in 2014. A new purchasing process was then launched, without the Gripen this time.
