Here are the words use in Switzerland to prepare the vote :
Introduction
On September 27, the Swiss population accepted Project Air2030 by a very narrow majority. This close result highlights the strong opposition among the population to spending billions on luxury fighter aircraft. On June 30, 2021, the Federal Council decided to buy 36 F-35A Lightning IIs from Lockheed Martin for more than 5 billion francs, showing that it is absolutely not prepared to take a step towards the largest possible minority, the 49.9% who voted NO last September.
Of course, close results are part of democracy and must be respected. Nevertheless, if the population had not voted on an opaque and anti-democratic planning decree but on a concrete procurement project with a specific model of fighter aircraft, the result would certainly have been different. It should be noted that during the campaign, the two US models clearly emerged as the most controversial. It is now a question of avoiding the worst and allowing the population to express itself on a concrete acquisition project. It is out of the question for Switzerland to buy a stealth fighter that is extremely expensive to maintain, such as the F-35. Moreover, with the F-35, the CIA is still on board and Switzerland would not even have full access to the programs' source codes. Switzerland would not be able to use these fighters independently.
From the point of view of the unitary committee, however, this is far from being the only fighter aircraft that should be vehemently rejected.
Arguments against the F-35
Too big, too expensive
It is far from clear why a fighter aircraft for Switzerland should be equipped with stealth technology, as is the case with the F-35. Moreover, it is foreseeable that this technology will become obsolete in the next few years due to new detection techniques.
The F-35 is an oversized, overpriced luxury toy for a few military officers. This view is shared by the highest ranking officer in the U.S. Air Force, Charles Brown, who has called the F-35 a Ferrari used in a completely wrong way. Other senior members of the U.S. armed forces even call the F-35 a worthless aircraft.
It is an oversized aircraft designed solely for combat, not for the air policing missions that must be performed in an unquestionable manner. If this luxury fighter aircraft is used for daily air policing missions, the equipment will wear out far too quickly. These aircraft will then become a financial drain, something that Switzerland absolutely cannot afford in the wake of the pandemic. Sending a warplane like the F-35 into the air to intercept airliners, tourist and sports planes makes no sense at all. Light combat aircraft are more than sufficient for these missions and we support their purchase.
"High life cycle costs :
Various reports from abroad show that if Switzerland were to buy the F-35, it would have to reckon with enormous costs over the entire life cycle. An hour of flight time with an F-35 currently costs the US Air Force $44,000, although Lockheed Martin has been promising a reduction to $25,000 by 2025. The Canadian government commissioned a study by the renowned auditing firm KPMG, which concluded that the F-35, with a purchase volume of C$9 billion, would cost over C$45 billion over its lifetime. This corresponds to a factor of 1 to 5 compared to the purchase price alone. If we do the same calculation for Switzerland, it would correspond to a spectacular total cost of 25 billion Swiss francs for a purchase price of six billion francs. The former head of the army, André Blattmann, estimates annual costs of 12 percent of the purchase price, which would result in life-cycle costs of 23 billion francs over 30 years.
The Norwegian Ministry of Defence, which has purchased F-35 fighter jets, uses a factor of 3.75. For Switzerland, this would mean total costs of 18.75 billion Swiss francs, which is significantly higher than the DDPS estimate of 15.5 billion Swiss francs for the new fighter jets over the entire life of the aircraft. Such high lifetime costs for the new fighter aircraft would put other sectors of the armed forces under massive pressure to make savings or force the Federal Council to increase the armed forces budget even more, which would lead to budget cuts in other departments. Spain and Japan are also grappling with the high costs of the F-35 for air policing missions. Spain has already opted for a lighter aircraft. In fact, using super fighter aircraft for air policing missions is like shooting sparrows with guns. Not only is this completely absurd, but it would cost hundreds of millions of francs of our tax money. This madness must be prevented.
Can it fly?
Even after decades of development, the F-35 remains the problem child of the U.S. Air Force and Navy. In addition to amusing incidents such as its inability to fly in thunderstorms, the model has significant technical flaws:
In theory, Lockheed Martin's system should automatically order replacement parts. However, this software is also faulty, so parts have to be reordered manually. Lockheed Martin charges the resulting additional costs to the
customers.
A large part of the F-35 fleet in the US is still not operational. There are still more than 800 known defects - nearly a dozen of which are so serious that they could cause the aircraft to crash or endanger the lives of pilots.
Engines for the U.S. F-35 program are not being delivered quickly enough, so up to 6 percent of the fleet is expected to fail because of this one problem. The U.S. Air Force's F-35 readiness rate also remains consistently below target. For example, the Department of Defense has set a goal that 80 percent of all F-35s should always be capable of performing at least one mission, which is currently only possible for 69 percent. For the F-35A, i.e. the model that Switzerland wishes to purchase, the Department of Defense has set a target of
70 percent and has also reached it, although this figure is very low. By purchasing 36 aircraft, Switzerland would therefore have to count with 11 grounded aircraft.
The outer layer of the F-35 is regularly and very quickly damaged.
Instead of continuing to invest in improving the F-35 program, senior U.S. military officials are now openly considering developing an entirely new fighter aircraft or reverting to the F-16. Recently, for example, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown, declared the F-35 a failure Christoph Miller, acting secretary of defense under Trump, even called the jet a "piece of shit." This raises the question of whether Switzerland should really buy a jet that may no longer be produced and developed for the United States in just a few years.
Unsuitable for real-world conflict situations
Proponents of the new fighter jets like to point out that Switzerland and the Swiss Army must be prepared for all scenarios, no matter how unlikely. However, in the event of war, which is the only other operational situation for combat aircraft besides air policing, combat aircraft are totally unsuitable. Current wars, such as the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh or the conflict in eastern Ukraine, show that combat aircraft have played a secondary, if any, role in warfare. Instead, cheaper drones and guided weapons have been increasingly used. Russian-made Iskander-M ballistic missiles, such as those used by Armenia, have a range of up to 500 km. These would paralyze the entire Swiss air force in a few hours by destroying the runways.
The former head of the Swiss Army André Blatmann shares this opinion. Thus, according to him, combat aircraft are designed to deal with adversaries that no longer really exist in crises and conflicts near Switzerland.
What influence does the USA have?
Two American officers are already stationed in Dübendorf to regularly inspect weapons systems and aircraft purchased in the USA. The basis for this is the strict US ITAR legislation, according to which the US remains solely responsible worldwide for the safekeeping of particularly sensitive technical components. Control of the F/A-18 software remains in the hands of the manufacturer Boeing. Switzerland must obtain permission from Washington to fire short-range guided missiles. The navigation system also only works with codes that are delivered once a month from the USA. The increasing technical complexity makes Switzerland even more dependent on the USA. The ODIN system installed in the F-35, for example, provides Lockheed Martin with mission data after each flight. Officially, this is supposed to guarantee the automatic replenishment of spare parts, but the system goes much further. In this way, Switzerland also provides the US military with detailed information about its missions and much more.
One can assume that Switzerland would not be able to maintain its air sovereignty against the will of the US. Either the fighters would remain directly on the ground because of built-in backdoors, or they would be prevented from taking off at the latest if the supply of spare parts by the manufacturers does not materialize. If this supply chain is interrupted, the aircraft may not be able to fly within six months. In the case of longer missions, comparable to the war in Iraq in the early 2000s, Switzerland could also be forced to let US fighter planes fly overhead.
The US military-industrial complex and armed forces ensure that the economic and geostrategic interests of the government and big business are safeguarded, if necessary, by force or military intervention. Lockheed Martin is one of the largest producers of military goods. The company produces nuclear weapons as well as other prohibited weapons. Switzerland would therefore pay five billion to a company that produces prohibited weapons in Switzerland.
The US military does not hide the fact that the sale of military goods also serves to promote its own interests. With the considerable development of communications between the various military systems, there is a risk that Swiss aircraft will not only be used to protect Swiss airspace in the future. So far, the DDPS has not clarified this point, which raises many questions. With a US fighter, Switzerland would be taking another step towards NATO. In the case of the F-35, for example, it is very openly announced what the real objective of a sale of this aircraft is: the integration of all users into a common military structure.
Initiative text
Federal popular initiative "Against the F-35 (Stop F-35)
The Constitution is amended as follows:
Art. 197, ch. 13
13. Transitional provision to Art. 60 (Organisation, training and equipment of the armed forces)
1 The Confederation shall not purchase F-35 fighter aircraft. 2 The armed forces budget shall be adjusted accordingly.
3 This provision shall cease to have effect on 1 January 2040.
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Sorry guys that the game. But when Armasuisse give reason to believe political words that's a hit to f-35.