the outbreak of war in ukraine and moves by other european countries to rearm have prompted
switzerland's governing body to move forward more rapidly than some in a neutral country
have historically been comfortable with and various left-wing groups have garnered signatures
to force the sound again swiss defence minister viola amberd has supported the
government's decision to buy the f-35a and has pointed to other european countries
that have also purchased the lightning too including belgium the netherlands and denmark
they all did their own evaluation process and also came to the conclusion that this is the best plane
amherd told reporters last year i don't think all those evaluations have come
to the wrong conclusion to date the f-35 has been selected by more than a dozen countries
and fifth-generation stealth aircraft are operated from 26 bases worldwide
with nine countries operating the f-35 on their home soil there are now more than 700 f-35s
in service today with more than 1190 pilots and 9750 maintainers trained on the aircraft
neutral switzerland has not furred a foreign conflict since the war of the seventh coalition
in 1815 and was last engaged in open warfare during the brief sonderbein war and internal
conflict in november 1847 however to maintain its neutrality switzerland operated a military force
modern dodd although not involved in disputes with other countries in two centuries
he participates in international peacekeeping missions and is also part of the nato partnership
for peace pfp program it is unlikely that switzerland will follow another historically
neutral european nation sweden and seek nato membership but the swiss military will soon
be operating an aircraft used by several nato members the lockheed martin f35a lightning 2.
bern is expected to sign a contract at the end of the month to buy 36 f-35a fighter jets
and is likely to move ahead without waiting for a referendum on a 5.5 billion deal switzerland voted
last year for the f-35 as its next-generation fighter jet angering opponents who said they
would ensure a referendum was held to scrap what they called the unnecessary ferrari option
in september 2020 swiss boaters approved chf 6 billion 6.4 billion dollars to spend on replacing
the swiss air force's ageing fleet of f5 tigers and fa-18 hornet jets by 2030. last june mps bern
appears to have struck a bargaining deal with lockheed martin to provide 36 f-35a aircraft
for more than chf 5 billion and warned this month that it was unclear whether the purchase could be
made under the same conditions if the deal had to be renegotiated after the offer ended next year
opponents of the decision to purchase the f-35 have claimed the fifth-generation stealth fighter
jet is unsafe and unsuitable for the needs of the swiss military and further suggested that
the government had underestimated the costs of maintaining and operating the lightning 2. but
proponents have highlighted the f-35s capabilities as well as the fact that it will provide greater
interoperability with many other countries that have or will adopt lockheed martin aircraft