Switzerland's Air Force has a European wide reputation as a well trained corps with good equipment and a neutral military doctrine. However, Switzerland also has a well documented history of bungled and politically devastating new airplane procurements dating back more than 50 years to the indigenous P-16 design, the Mirage scandal of the 1960s and the "zero decision" to purchase the A-7 Corsair in the early 1970s.

A few years ago, the process started to find a replacement for the F-5 Tiger fighter fleet which has been flying for more than thirty years and is well beyond it's sell by date with regards to it's effectiveness in the modern combat skies. Of course, that was the political argument that the Air Force spun, even though pretty much everyone knew that the new fighter program would actually end up replacing the current F/A-18 Hornet fleet which although flying since the mid 1990s, is also only still current due to continuous upgrades and weapons improvements. By the time that a Tiger replacement actually enters service (around 2015), the Hornet fleet will be twenty years old.

So the state armaments procurement agency, Armasuisse, played with the three selected candidates; France's Dassault Rafale, the Anglo-Italian-German Eurofighter and Sweden's Saab Gripen. The evaluation was carried out at Emmen, Meiringen and Payerne airfields and the winner was never announced, because before any plans to actually buy anything proceeded, the anticipated costs of over CHF 5 billion would have (allegedly) been overstepped and the Bundesrat called off the whole deal. Meanwhile, back in Bern, a center right coalition of conservative and industrialist politicians fought to keep the new fighter idea alive and also to spend funds from the existing military budget which would avoid the inconvenience of having to ask the nation via a referendum if they actually wanted the new jets at all.

Of course, if the whole subject does go to a referendum, every voting member of public will immediately consider themselves an aerospace expert and military strategist and have an opinion. The Greens and SP in particular feel that a new jet is completely unnecessary, whilst there are also concerns from other non-socialist quarters that feel that a new combat aircraft is at best, superfluous for Switzerland's defense. The story continues; parliament is now in fall recess and the media are foaming at the bit, convinced that billions of taxpayer's money is about to be spent on grey birds of prey with sharp noses carrying death and destruction.

unmanned drones are the future

We lost one at Emmen about two weeks ago. I beg to differ. UAVs can't make instantaneous decisions in theater.

Does anyone?

If so, then why not CH?

Tom

who needs instantaneous decisions in theater when you can buy x drones for the price of one fighter jet.

Plus the chances of an enemy fighter jet finding & confronting a drone is <1%

i thought being swiss, they would have just gone for the most expensive one.

Yeah I mean...these things are going to matter when Switzerland fights Germany, France, and Italy at the same time, preventing an invasion with it's superior airpower and fighter pilots.

The replacement IS needed indeed. Whether really now or later is something I leave to REAL experts. It would be good if it went through without a public vote. IF a vote comes about and people say NO against the new fighters, I later on will vote consequently for an abolishment of the armed forces, as I do not believe that this country needs an oversized CH variant of the carabinieri

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PART of the future. Beside the point that those drones could be done by any cantonal police force. You do not need a very sizeable army for this job

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You apparently are not aware of the fact how close you are to reality they started with considerations of a "modest" plane like F5 but now already are talking about stuff like an F-A/...-18-plus

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No new planes until they get rid of conscription. Switzerland cant spend so much money on new plane, only by saving money by getting rid of consription could we even begin to plan on getting new planes.

nobody attacks crazy people and this is the conclusion after more than 400 days in service with those maniac forces

A professional army in the way of most other West European countries is what I advocated for decades. But a NO against the F5 replacement for me means a YES for the total closing down of the armed forces.

Are the armed forces REALLY necessary ? Your statement clearly shows that they are NOT and ought to be dropped.

I agree that if Switzerland wants to maintain it's military, then having a credible Air Force is paramount. My concerns are more in the operation and rôle placement for the new jet. The Air Force currently has three professional fighter squadrons flying the Hornet and a further three militia squadrons assigned to the F-5. (Militia pilots are normally, but not exclusively, serving airline pilots). Presuming that only two new squadrons were formed with the new fighter jets, it dictates the end of the militia system and at least 40 new pilots requiring training, this at a time, when annual new qualified fast jet personnel are in single figures. Whilst the Air Force tries to convince everyone that they play a significant part of our defense, their constant lack of actual missions and by definition, no 24 hour coverage has them raving about their World Economic Forum participation, which basically requires no major skills as they fly circles overhead Davos with live munitions.

The Bundesrat needs to mandate a clear rôle for the Air Force including 24 hour availability and also to take care of their own maintenance and improve serviceability. Inter-operational exercises with NATO countries and beyond are essential to not only gain an insight into how other nations fly, but to effectively show Switzerland's professionalism. Unfortunately, the unlikely bed partners, the SP and SVP are opposed to foreign deployments, preferring to stick to a "closed border, defensive stance".

I agree. Especially with all those aggressive cows in the country (Calmy-Rey not included).

First there are currency wars... Then there are trade wars... And then shooting wars follow...

This to me sounds naive. We are surrounded by friends? Projecting distructive military power over long distances has been possible for a long time thus could also hit Switzerland. Besides, being friends also means being there for one another if/when the shit hits the fan. If there's no reciprocity, then isn't Switzerland a parasite?

I just recall the old statement, "An ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure..." Its best to have a strong, modern, and professional force in place as a deterrent to anything happening, better to have any force in place than nothing, and really bad to be totally, sitting-on-your-hands-unprepared when some crackpot idiot of a dictator or terror-monger throws the poop at the fan...

Right you are. In the last vote about abolishing the armed forces, all people born after 1952 voted in favour of dropping the stuff totally. And the YES votes were around 48% . I however don't know how the outcome would be now. But as long as the idea is to maintain the armed forces, needed equipment is to be bought. AND, while the air force makes a tiny bit of sense, let's drop the infantry, which even in case of mobilization-exercises only causes heavy traffic congestions and overfilled trains

Plus, drop these capabilities now... and it will be very difficult to build up again in the future.

This argument can be used also for the whole rest of the army, except that it would take 14 hours for any skilled professional army. Which means that 20 to 30 years old (male) people working 3 weeks more would be quite a positive thing. All those military establishments could be converted into hotels, camping-grounds, adventure-parks and much else And the still existing hardware could be converted into museum-stuff. Some tanks and lots of weapons and some of the technical equipment could be handed over to the police and the fire-brigades

You are much closer to the truth for Switzerland than you'd ever know! We lost all our ground attack experts when the Hunter was retired at the end of 1994 and then our reconnaisance squadron flying the Mirage IIIRS was disbanded after 2003. The UAVs and Super Puma/Cougar helicopters will never be able to match the insight we had with the recon Mirages with their sensors and infra-red radars (FLIR).

These days our Hornets have no specific air to ground weapons except for the on board cannon. Bombs and rockets disappeared in the mid 1990s when the Hunter was retired. Of course, the wiring and pylons are all available, but the doctrine is air-to-air these days.