swiss air force new fighter jet

The Swiss Air Force operates a total of 34 single-seat F/A-18C and two-seat F/A-18D Hornet fighters. Dec 19, 2019 “Europe and the world have become more unstable,” it wrote in the official vote booklet. Swiss voters hold the keys to new fighter jet fleet The fleet of F/A18 Hornet aircraft have been in use for the Swiss air force since 1997. | English Department. Swiss F/A-18 jets are to be upgraded while the MoD seeks to enact a new generation fighter programme. Blog Before Flight Staff January 29, 2019 0 New fighter jet for Switzerland. What are your thoughts on the outcome? The jets, acquired in the 1990s, will age out by 2030. “Who wants to attack Switzerland?” said Green Party politician Fabian Fivaz. However, the Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA), which led the opposition campaign, has already said it will launch a people’s initiative to challenge the government’s choice. For the first time in decades, the army was defeated at the ballots. Without new fighters, the army – an important institution of non-NATO member Switzerland – would be unable to fulfil its mandate of protecting the country, said these supporters, who included the government and a majority of parliament. Your web browser is outdated. There is a long road ahead until the air force will receive its new aircraft and new obstacles might emerge. This content was published on Aug 7, 2020 The Swiss government plans to announce its decision next summer (along with the selection of a new ground-based air defense system for 2 billion CHF, which forms the second leg of the defense ministry’s Air2030 program but was excluded from the referendum). By a margin of fewer than 9,000 votes, Swiss citizens have given a cautious all-clear for a multi-billion purchase of new fighter jets for the air force. In the end, 50.1% of the roughly three million voters who cast ballots approved the CHF6 billion ($6.49 billion) funding packet after a surprising afternoon that left pollsters unable to call the result until the last minute. Three reserve command squadrons of former Swiss Air Force Northrop F-5N Tiger IIs, plus three F-5F ‘Frankentiger’ two-seaters, which mated existing F-5F front fuselages with former Swiss rear fuselages, are currently operated by the US Navy and US Marine Corps (USMC). With fewer than 9,000 votes making the difference, the electorate very narrowly rejected the opponents’ claim that “expensive luxury fighter-planes” were a waste of resources and that a fleet of cheaper jet trainers along with a modern air defense would suffice for the air force to fulfill its core mission of upholding the Swiss airspace’s sovereignty. This Sunday, the Swiss electorate voted to purchase new fighter aircraft by the end of the decade. It was Switzerland's second attempt to develop a domestically designed and manufactured jet fighter, following the EFW N-20. What has changed in the past six years? 50.1% of voters have voted “yes” to the procurement of new aircraft for the Swiss Air Force. The vote is a landmark decision for the future of the Swiss Air Force, which had been characterized mostly by reorganization and downsizing over the last three decades. They also benefited from the fact that Federal Councilor Viola Amherd, who had become the country’s first female defense minister in 2019, enjoys a broader appeal than her predecessors had. For its part, the government defended the price tag by raising the so-called offset agreement – a compensatory system that will be into the deal, obliging the company involved to place orders with Swiss firms worth 60% of the contract value. The 24 popular votes on national security since 1977 have all served to strengthen, rather than weaken, the army. Switzerland has been trying to buy new warplanes for years. Switzerland is to hold a national referendum on its Air2030 requirement to procure new combat aircraft on 27 September. Just a few days before the vote, the Swiss parliament agreed on an increase from 20 billion CHF for the four-year-period 2017-2020 up to 21.1 billion CHF for 2021-2024. Just as importantly, the vote may also point to a deeper shift in how the Swiss people perceive changes in their security environment. While opponents of the vote were at pains to argue that fighter jets were useless against cyberattacks or pandemics, the majority of the electorate seemed more inclined to accept Federal Councilor Amherd’s case that Switzerland simply cannot afford to be unprepared for future threats to its airspace. Amherd said this will not derail plans to finalise the contract by 2021. The Air Force wants to buy new fighters, with candidates including the Airbus Eurofighter, French Rafale, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. Image: G. Mader . In principle, voters will have no further say on the type of new planes to be bought. The plans may yet... SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR. The purchase’s opponents predictably decried this “blind bargain,” but the defense ministry made sure to avoid the mistakes of the previous vote when even some army-friendly politicians had questioned the Gripen’s suitability in the run-up to the vote. The Air2030 project seeks to procure a new multi-role fighter to replace the Swiss Air Force’s ageing Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet and Northrop F-5E/F Tiger II fleets. The cost of the plan and the current “pandemic effect” were also decisive, he said. On 6 September, Swiss Defence Minister Guy Parmelin presented the Bundesrat (the Swiss Governmental Ministerial Council) with a proposal for the complete replacement of the Swiss Air Force's … Such was the case in May 2014 when voters derailed the government’s plan to replace the aging Tiger fleet with twenty-two Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen aircraft. The Swiss Air Force announced on Friday it has accepted five bids for a new fighter aircraft as part of Switzerland’s air power modernization effort named Air2030. This was the second set of nationwide votes this year, rather than the third, as a ballot in May was cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis. A new poll reveals that 58% of voters are in favor of procurement. The majority (50.2%) of Swiss voters gave the go-ahead to the purchase of new combat aircraft on Sept. … Despite plans to ‘sundown’ the F-5 in 2015, it … With the F-5 force shrinking and flying part-time, the Swiss air force increasingly relies on its 30 F/A-18s. However, in a national referendum in May 2014 a majority of Swiss … Short german language movie about the swiss build P-16 Fighter :Here you see one of the Prototyps and a camuflage pre seri Exampel. As for the price tag, they also claimed that when maintenance, upgrades, and ancillary costs are factored in, the jets would cost CHF24 billion rather than CHF6 billion. Roger Nordmann, vice-president of the leftwing Social Democrats, said the tiny margin of victory showed that the army suffers from a “credibility problem”. This content was published on Aug 23, 2020 From Europe, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen E; from the US — the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II. Switzerland in July 2018 began a new effort to buy a replacement fighter. After the Swiss government cancelled the FFA N-20 and an order for 100 FFA P-16s, the Swiss aviation industry and the ETH Zurich made a final attempt to build their own Swiss fighter aircraft. He covers direct democracy and politics and is usually in Bern. Wafer-thin majority approves new fighter jets The air force flirted with a second defeat in six years before scraping over the line. Anti-immigration initiative:     38.3% Yes               61.7% No, Credit for fighter jets:              50.2% Yes               49.8% No, Paternity leave:                         60.3% Yes               39.7% No, Tax break childcare:                 36.8% Yes               63.2% No, Reform hunting law:                 48.1% Yes               51.9% No. The modernization programs follow the assumption that the defense budget will grow substantially over the next decade. It also raised the issue of terrorism and new geopolitical uncertainties. Paternity leave and tax breaks At the same time, the collapse of the Iron Curtain also coincided with a heretofore unheard of scrutiny toward the Swiss army within parts of the population. For now, four aircraft types (the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin F-35A, Dassault Rafale, and Airbus Eurofighters) remain in evaluation (Saab withdrew its new Gripen-bid last year). What will happen next? The government has confirmed plans to acquire new fighter jets for the Swiss air force for no more than CHF6 billion ($6.1 billion) over the next few years. The main argument was that air policing tasks could be done by cheaper, lighter, and more sustainable planes, while the bigger tasks of combat and air defence are in any case illusory. The past five years, which saw armed conflicts on Europe’s periphery, refugee crises, and terrorist attacks across the continent, may contribute to increased levels of appreciation for the Swiss army’s necessity. More critically, with the Swiss Armed Forces and the defense ministry now put on notice, the 1993 vote may have led to the unwritten agreement that the government will consult the people for any future aircraft purchase. At the same time, politicians have already cautioned that the defense budget might be subject to austerity measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This content was published on Sep 27, 2020 Voters in 2014 rejected a 3.1 billion-franc ($3.2 billion) order for Saab AB Gripen fighter jets. The move comes a day after Airbus and Germany placed their bid offering Eurofighter aircraft to the Swiss Government. The Swiss Air Force operates a total of 34 single-seat F/A-18C and two-seat F/A-18D Hornet fighters. This content was published on Sep 27, 2020 One of the particularities of Switzerland is the broad say its citizens have in political issues—even in matters of national security and defense. This is how Switzerland voted on five issues related to immigration, fighter jets, family policies and hunting. After more than one-third of the electorate had endorsed a popular initiative to abolish the army in 1989, an even higher percentage (42.8 percent) voted, albeit unsuccessfully, against the planned purchase of the abovementioned F/A-18s in June 1993. This content was published on Dec 19, 2019 The jets, acquired in the 1990s, will age out by 2030. The Swiss parliament has approved the purchase of a new fleet of fighter jets to the tune of some CHF6 billion ($6.1 billion). The FFA P-16 was a Swiss prototype ground attack jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein (FFA). Eurofighter Typhoon Fighter Aircraft New extended-range ground-based air defence system The aircraft had met all Swiss Air Force requirements for an STOL attack fighter capable of carrying heavy loads, and the crash was widely considered a pretext for the Swiss parliament to reverse itself. Today, the closest thing Dublin operates to a fighter plane is the Swiss-built Pilatus PC-9 trainer aircraft. Originally from Ireland, Domhnall worked in research and writing in a couple of European countries before joining swissinfo.ch in 2017. Swiss citizens today voted to approve the purchase of CHF6 billion ($6.4 billion) worth new fighter by the country’s air force that had been challenged to a referendum by pacifists and left-wing political parties. In addition, the Swiss Air Force will use the new fighter aircraft for air policing around the clock, and, in case of armed attack, defend the air space for a limited period of time and support the ground forces. The first new aircraft would be delivered in 2018 and the intention was to lease 11 current generation (eight JAS 39Cs/3 JAS 39Ds) Gripen fighters from 2016 to 2020 in order to train Swiss fighter pilots while avoiding expensive upkeep of the F-5s. Sep 27, 2020 Opponents, mainly left-wing parties and anti-army groups, said the CHF6 billion amounted to a “blank cheque” that would be better spent on climate protection, health, or the Covid-19 crisis: “fighter jets are useless against a pandemic”, they said. However, they shied away from painting their cause as anti-army generally. A Swiss Air Force F/A18 Hornet fighter jet flies past spectators during a flight demonstration of the Swiss Air Force over the Axalp in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland, on Oct. 12, 2017. Jun 17, 2020 Voters will have the final say on a CHF6 billion ($6.1 billion) package to buy new fighter jets for the Swiss airforce. Defence Minister Viola Amherd welcomed the victory and said the government would now proceed with the evaluation of four models bidding for the contract: the Lockheed-Martin F-35, Boeing’s Super Hornet, Dassault’s Rafale, and Airbus’s Eurofighter Typhoon. Other opposition figures were both enthused and disappointed by the nearness of the loss on Sunday, which Green Party president Regula Rytz said was a “sensational” victory in itself. But during its campaign, the government argued that the air force is vital for remaining credibly independent and sovereign – even if an all-out aerial attack is improbable. The fleet of several hundred fighter aircraft fielded throughout the Cold War has continuously shrunk to initially thirty-four, now thirty, F/A-18 Hornets (and some forty-seven F-5 Tigers remaining for training purposes) that are set to be phased out by the end of the decade. In total, 110 examples were delivered to Switzerland, comprising … A right-wing proposal to scrap a Swiss immigration accord with the EU has been clearly rejected at the ballot box. An annual study by the Military Academy at ETH Zurich and the Center of Security Studies confirms as much. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the views of the Swiss Government, the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport or the Swiss Armed Forces. The reduction in fighter jets was accompanied by a decrease in the number of operational airbases and mirrored the overall downsizing of Swiss Armed Forces troop levels following the end of the Cold War. BERN, Switzerland - On Nov. 18, the U.S. government and Lockheed Martin submitted an F-35 proposal to the Swiss government in support of Switzerland's New Fighter Aircraft (NFA) competition. Switzerland narrowly elects to modernize its air force but some questions remain. In a report two weeks ago, GfS Bern said that while in 2014 the issue of new fighters was seen as less pressing, its supporters had this time argued that rejection would leave the country unable to defend its skies by 2030. June 26, 2019 - 16:48 Among the questions, one will concern the acquisition of new fighter jets for the Swiss Air Force. Sep 27, 2020 By a margin of just 9,000 votes, Swiss citizens have given a cautious all-clear for a multi-billion purchase of new fighter jets for the air force. For once, rather than voting on a specific aircraft, the electorate had to decide in principle on a credit of 6 billion CHF (approximately 6 billion USD) allocated from the army’s regular budget to buy a new multi-role fighter-jet—with the exact type and number of aircraft yet to be determined. This content was published on September 27, 2020 - 19:30, This content was published on Sep 27, 2020, This content was published on Aug 7, 2020, This content was published on Sep 2, 2020, This content was published on Aug 23, 2020, This content was published on Dec 19, 2019, Referendum commitee against fighter jet purchase (German, French, Italian), Federal Statistics Office – Votes September 27, 2020. Please use a modern web browser for a better experience. Combat Aircraft; Mirage III: France: fighter IIIS: 30: retired in 1999 P-51 … While the Federal Council will consult the official evaluation reports prior to its decision, political calculations based on the manufacturers’ countries of origin will likely play an important role, too. More about the author The army needs to be ready to face any unknown threats that come up in the next 30 to 40 years. Michel Wyss is a Scientific Assistant for Strategic Studies at the Military Academy at ETH Zurich, a lecturer at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences at ETH Zurich, and PhD Candidate at the Institute for History, Leiden University. In practice, Switzerland has few enemies and has fought no wars in centuries. In addition, by the middle of 1958, influenced by NATO concepts, the LVK had redefined the Swiss doctrine of air power from close air support to counter-air … The plans called for a small fighter plane similar in class to the F-5E, which the Swiss Air Force later ordered.. Airbus Offered Eurofighter Typhoon Jets to Swiss Air Force for $8.1 billion November 20, 2020 GDC Air Platform , Europe 0 Airbus and the Federal Republic of Germany submitted their official offer to the Swiss Federal Office of Armaments armasuisse for the sale of Eurofighter aircraft to Switzerland seeking 36 combat aircraft and ground-based air … The US Government and Lockheed Martin have officially proposed the sale of the F-35 aircraft to Switzerland to replace its ageing fighter jets through the New Fighter Aircraft (NFA) competition. Then, in 2022, the government intends to ask parliament for formal approval of both fighter jets as well as the air defense system that is finally set to roll out between 2025 and 2030. Substantially over the line in the votes Swiss Government as anti-army generally of 34 single-seat and! May yet... SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR older of new... 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