Swiss government accepts it could have handled F-35 procurement better

Federal Council wants to learn lessons from the F-35 fixed-price chaos Keystone-SDA

Following criticism of the alleged fixed price for the F-35 fighter jets, the governing Federal Council has accepted six out of seven recommendations made by the parliamentary oversight body. At the same time, it has rejected the accusation that the US contracts had scarcely been read.

In its statement published on Friday, the government announced measures in response to criticism of the F-35 procurement. In future, defence procurement is to be conducted more transparently, risk management is to be improved, and the legal department of the Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse) is to be strengthened.

At the same time, the Federal Council has rejected allegations that the contracts were barely scrutinised. It regrets the impression that only the then project manager had read the contracts in full. In addition to the former head of armaments, other Armasuisse experts had studied the texts in their entirety, whilst the defence ministry and former Defence Minister Viola Amherd, had examined the pricing clauses in depth.

In September, the parliamentary oversight body had criticised the fact that the promised fixed price for the jets had never materialised. Defence Minister Martin Pfister had previously admitted that the funds would probably only be sufficient for 30 fighter jets rather than 36. Parliament recently approved a supplementary credit of CHF394 million ($476 million).

+ How we produce news in English
Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist. 

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