Tony Osborne Switzerland looks to the U.S. to meet future air defense needs with F-35 and Patriot selections.
Tony Osborne
With its combination of stealth features and networked sensors, the F-35 was perhaps not the obvious choice for a neutral air service focused on air defense. Credit: Lockheed Martin
Switzerland has concluded that the Lockheed Martin F-35 is the best fit for the country’s future fighter needs. Defense procurement officials scored the fighter as the best in terms of effectiveness, product support and international cooperation, even noting that it would be $2 billion less expensive to operate over 30 years than the competition.
But protest is already brewing over the decision. Opposition parties who were against a fighter procurement have called the choice of the F-35 “incomprehensible,” and campaigners have begun securing signatures for a referendum through the country’s voting system that could yet ditch an F-35 buy altogether.
Swiss voters were already divided on whether the landlocked neutral nation should even buy combat aircraft. The government barely scraped through a referendum to purchase new fighters last September, with just 50.1% of voters giving their approval. The F-35’s selection could polarize opinion further.
“We were looking for the best aircraft for our country and have defined clear criteria for it,” Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd said after the decision, announced June 30.
Amherd also said the determination by the Swiss Federal Council—the country’s notional cabinet—had been the subject of an independent “plausibility check” by Zurich-based law firm Homburger AG.
The Swiss government has little room for maneuver. It is obliged to award the contract to the most economically advantageous bid, and the F-35 was the least expensive fighter of the four contenders by a large margin—and according to the Swiss evaluation, the most capable. The aircraft scored 336 points, 95 more than any of the other entrants. Swiss officials say the total number of points awarded across all four candidates was 1,000. The F-35 recieved more than one-third of all the points that could have been awarded, 336, with the remaining points shared among the other candidates. Each type was scored for: effectiveness, weighted at 55%; product support, 25%; cooperation, 10%; and direct offset, 10%.
Scores for the other contenders have not yet been published.
The offer for 36 F-35s, made in February and worth 5.068 billion Swiss Francs ($5.5 billion), came in well under the Air2030 program fighter budget of 6 billion Swiss francs. Over the aircraft’s expected 30-year life, that could enable the purchase of additional aircraft. Through-life costs were claimed to be 2 billion Swiss francs lower than the second-lowest bidder. This is despite recent criticism by U.S. government auditors and UK politicians about the slow pace of industry in reducing the aircraft’s operating costs.
Darko Savic, head of the New Fighter Aircraft business unit at Swiss defense materiel agency Armasuisse, says the government had been given “binding information” on the costs per flight hour that equated to 55,000-60,000 Swiss francs. The evaluation also stated that 20% fewer flying hours are required on the F-35 than with the other candidates because more training can be done in simulators.
Competitors are skeptical. Airbus, which led the Eurofighter bid, says it is awaiting detailed information from the Swiss government and will analyze the reasons for the fighter choice—and if necessary, “critically question them.”
“The arguments put forward, especially with regard to costs and operational aspects, are neither in line with the practical experience of other user nations nor with our operational analyses,” Airbus’ statement reads.
But as well as lower costs, the Swiss evaluations praised the F-35’s low-observability capabilities and its networked systems. “As the most modern weapon system, it can be assumed that [the F-35’s] technological lead will last well into the future,” the evaluation report stated.
The selection adds to the F-35’s growing tally of contest wins. The aircraft has prevailed in virtually every competition in which it was entered. It has consistently won versus the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale.
In the runup to the announcement, some defense analysts had predicted the Rafale would be victorious in Switzerland. Many suggested that the F-35’s capabilities would be overkill for the Swiss Air Force’s mission, primarily one of policing the country’s airspace. That is currently performed by legacy model F/A-18 Hornets and Northrop F-5 Tigers.
“Despite the fact that on most grounds the F-35A is the most technologically advanced of the four final competitors, its selection is rather surprising,” Justin Bronk, airpower and technology research fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, tells Aviation Week.
“The F-35 was designed from the outset to penetrate the most heavily defended airspace and perform precision strikes and suppression/destruction of enemy air defenses,” he says. “As such, it has many expensive features which the Swiss Air Force, with its exclusively defensive and air-defense-focused operational outlook, is unlikely to ever use.”
In addition to the F-35 decision, Bern selected Raytheon’s Patriot air defense system for the ground-based element of the Air2030 program. The U.S.-built system won out against the Eurosam SAMP/T. Switzerland now plans to purchase five Patriot fire units, with a procurement cost of 1.97 billion Swiss francs, just under the budget cap of 2 billion Swiss francs. The Swiss evaluation of the Patriot mirrored that of the F-35: It deemed the system not only cheaper to operate than the SAMP/T but also more effective.
The Patriot offer was made in conjunction with Switzerland-based Rheinmetall Air Defense and U.S.-based Mercury Systems.
Officials insist the choice of the two U.S.-developed systems does not mean the country has turned its back on Europe, noting that numerous other European countries have adopted the F-35, including neighboring Italy.
Success in Switzerland may now arguably boost the F-35’s chances in Finland, another neutral country with demanding resilience requirements in terms of spares and support in the event of wartime. Finland is also looking to replace its F/A-18 Hornets.
While the F-35 scored high in effectiveness, product support and international cooperation, the evaluation stated that the F-35 proposal fell down in terms of its direct offset offer. “[The Lockheed Martin offer] does not achieve direct offset at the time of submitting the offer,” the evaluation stated. The report noted that the company has four years after the last delivery to completely fulfill offset obligations. Swiss requirements call for 60% of fighter contract value to be offset.
It is unclear whether Lockheed Martin’s proposal for limited local assembly of four F-35s by local company RUAG will be taken up. The Swiss tender did not require local assembly but allows the bidder teams to propose options to improve the country’s ability to sustain the aircraft autonomously. Lockheed Martin had also proposed work packages for Swiss companies to produce 400 shipsets of canopies and transparencies for the global F-35 fleet and to establish a regional hub to maintain, repair and overhaul them for European operators.
Lockheed Martin proposed a so-called F-35 Cyber Center of Excellence as well, which the company says will allow it to fulfill Swiss requirements to operate the F-35 securely and autonomously. Switzerland also has the option to have its F-35s built at the Cameri final assembly and check out facility in Italy, just 25 mi. from the Swiss border.
The next steps will be for the Federal Council to obtain Federal Assembly approval for the F-35 purchase. This is likely to come in 2022, when the national armaments program is discussed.
Switzerland hopes to begin receiving F-35s in 2025-30, allowing the phaseout of the Hornet by 2030.
F-35s deployed to Switzerland in 2019 to support the in-country flight evaluation testing of the type’s suitability for the country’s Alpine environment. Credit: Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport
The F-35’s Uncontested Export Success Despite perennial questions about its operating and through-life costs and future capabilities, the F-35 continues to secure first place in virtually every fighter contest in which it has been offered.
Economies of scale, order backlogs and a road map of capability development guaranteed by the U.S. through to the 2060s are key sales drivers in the hotly contested fighter market. In some cases, there have simply been no rivals. The F-35 was sole-sourced in numerous nations—including Israel, Japan and the United Arab Emirates—which see the aircraft as a means of maintaining their role as a defense partner to the U.S.
Nations such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway competed fighter tenders even though they were established members of the F-35 program. All three were members of the European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) group and early customers for the F-16. They were subsequently joined by Belgium, the last of the EPAF nations to select the F-35, although the Lockheed Martin fighter ended up facing competition only from the Eurofighter Typhoon after other competitors withdrew, saying the contest was skewed.
Only in Germany, where the F-35 competed against the Boeing F-15 Advanced Eagle and the F/A-18 Super Hornet in a contest for the partial replacement for the Panavia Tornado, did the aircraft lose to the Super Hornet. But this was largely due to intense lobbying by the French government, which threatened to drop Germany from the Future Combat Air System program if it proceeded with an F-35 purchase. This was despite the F-35 being the first choice of the German Air Force.
Now, with a neutral Switzerland deciding in favor of the stealthy aircraft, prospects could be looking up for the F-35 in Finland’s HX-contest, which is due to be decided toward year-end or in early 2022. And with many of its European competitors withdrawing in Canada, the F-35 appears set to face off against Boeing’s Super Hornet and the Saab Gripen there.
