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Reuters, Zurich
Mon 28.06.2021 00:00
Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer enters the cockpit of a jet during an event in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany on March 29. REUTERS / FILE
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Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer enters the cockpit of a jet during an event in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany on March 29. REUTERS / FILE
Airbus has offered to assemble Eurofighter aircraft in Switzerland if Bern selects it for an armaments contract worth 6 billion Swiss francs (6.5 billion US dollars), a top seller of the consortium told a Swiss Sunday newspaper.
Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain, which manufacture the Eurofighter, have also offered Bern extensive political cooperation should it win the Swiss competition between two US and two European fighter jets scheduled for delivery by 2025. The Swiss cabinet will decide on Wednesday among the Eurofighters, the Rafale from France’s Dassault, Boeing’s F / A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin’s F35-A Lightning II to replace the aging F / A-18 Hornets.
For all the breaking news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. Swiss television reported last week that the F-35 delivered the best technical and financial properties in a Swiss evaluation, but the final decision was still open.
The SonntagsZeitung quoted Bernhard Brenner, Head of Sales at Airbus Defense and Space, as saying that neutral Switzerland should not rely on this assessment alone. “The economic and political elements are just as important,” he said. The newspaper said that Airbus alone submitted a 700-page dossier on economic “offsets” relating to subsidiary deals where contract costs are returned to local suppliers.
The government is divided between those who support the F-35 and those who prefer a European agreement to improve relations with the European Union after Switzerland abandoned a draft bilateral treaty after years of talks.
The defense ministers of Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain wrote to Bern last year, offering not only military cooperation such as training, but also partnerships in business, energy, science, the environment, transport, cybersecurity and infrastructure, Brenner told the paper.
France has urged Bern to vote for the Rafale, while US President Joe Biden discussed the deal with Swiss leaders with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva this month.
The Ministry of Defense did not want to comment on the procedure.
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