A while back I related the sorry story of how Switzerland witlessly signed up for the Lockheed F-35. Briefly: in 2022 the country’s military establishment rammed though a deal in the face of public opposition to buy 36 of the misbegotten planes at what they claimed was a “binding” fixed price of just over 6 billion Swiss francs, $7.4 billion in current dollars. It was clear at the time that Swiss voters wanted no part of the arrangement. A campaign to collect signatures for a referendum rejecting the buy gathered over 100,000 signatures in record time. The country’s Federal Audit Office reported that the purportedly “binding” contract price was nothing of the kind, to which the defense ministry’s procurement arm responded by accusing the Auditor of "endangering the interests of the [Swiss] Confederation” and hurriedly concluded the deal in order to render the proposed referendum irrelevant. Parties in the governing coalition endorsed the sordid maneuver. So much for Swiss democracy. Misunderstanding a $billion Three years on, the Swiss Federal Department of Defense has publicly admitted what it knew full well at least a year ago: there was nothing binding about the contract after all. The price demanded by Lockheed for the planes, none of which have been delivered, has climbed by an extra $1.35 billion. The defense department explained that the whopping 18 percent hike was due to a “misunderstanding” over the original terms Furthermore, although Lockheed will supposedly “deliver” the first aircraft in 2027, the planes will spend the next two years on a U.S. airbase, and won’t begin showing up over the Alps until 2029. That might be just as well, since upgrading the three Swiss airports where the planes will ultimately be based will cost in the region of $1.5 billion, although the Swiss defense department has budgeted only a fraction of the money necessary for the task. Defense Officials Rush for the Exits. Coincidence? News of the billion dollar misunderstanding has caused something of a storm in Switzerland, spurring plans for a parliamentary probe into the circumstances of the original agreement. As it happens, every single one of the responsible high ranking officials, including the secretary general of the defense ministry, the head of the procurement office, as well as the service commanders, have all either recently left office, or are swiftly making tracks for the door. “Is this just a coincidence” asked Frédéric Koller in Le Temps. “Many observers are questioning this coincidence.” Swiss Cave In In a forlorn effort to melt flinty hearts at Lockheed and the Pentagon, Swiss emissaries have trekked to Washington and Fort Worth, Texas (where the planes are being built) over the summer. But no go. As the Federal Council admitted in August: “Talks held over the summer have made it clear that the USA is not prepared to deviate from its position. Consequently, Switzerland is unable to assert a fixed price for the F-35A fighter aircraft…This also means that it is not possible at the present time to calculate precisely the total cost of the procurement.” The press release also contained some brave talk about the defense department reconsidering “whether current air defence requirements still correspond to the principles on which the evaluation of the F-35A was based.” Defense Minister Martin Pfister even suggested at a press conference that Switzerland might save money by cutting the number of planes it will buy. Good luck with that. Trump has made it very clear that what he expects from Europe is arms deals, and plenty of them. At his July meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen he extracted a promise that Europe would spend “hundreds of billions” of dollars buying American weapons, and there is zero chance that the Swiss, albeit not part of the EU, will be let off the hook. Consolation: The Poorer You Are, the Better Your Defense Budget Looks Meanwhile, of course, the poor Swiss are reeling at the news that Trump is imposing a 39 percent tariff on Swiss exports to the U.S., a level barely exceeded by Laos and Myanmar. (This onerous imposition was apparently prompted by a sharp rise in America’s trade deficit with Switzerland in 2024, largely due to higher than normal imports of gold bars.) Pleas to reduce the economically crippling levy have had as much success as the F-35 price entreaties. There is one sliver of a silver lining in the onerous tariffs: they are projected to shrink the economy by as much as .6 percent, though if pharmaceuticals are ultimately included that could soar to 2 percent. Given that Trump is demanding that everyone increase defense spending to 5 percent of GNP, a GNP tanking under the tariff burden should make it easier for the Swiss to make the target. At least they can take pride in that and it might even get them a kind word from Trump. Sending him a few gold bars would help. Before you go: Please click that ♡ button. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Spoils of War, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. © 2025 Andrew Cockburn |