Swiss public opinion invites itself into the competition for the replacement of the Swiss F18 and F5

24 hours before the announcement of the winner of the AIR2030 competition aimed at replacing the F/A 18 Hornet and F5 Tiger II combat aircraft in service with the Swiss air forces, the weight of public opinion seems to represent a growing issue , not to say decisive, in this issue whose twists and turns have little to envy of a round of 8 pitting France against Switzerland. According to the Swiss media, the outcome of this competition is likely not to be more favorable to the Rafale French than yesterday's match was for the French team, since everything seems to indicate that the head of the Federal Department of Defense, Viola Amherd, chose to favor the offer from Lockheed-Martin and its F-35.

But the arguments put forward by Armasuisse and Me Amherd, or to be more precise, the arguments which leaked to the press on this subject, are very far from convincing a good part of the Swiss press, as well as the country's left-wing parties, who bluntly announced that in the event of selection of an American aircraft, F35 or F/A 18 E/F, they would call for a vote against this program, as was the case in 2014 against the Swedish Gripen, in a remarkably close context, with a very real risk of derailing the process of modernizing the Swiss air forces once again. Since then, press articles have multiplied, particularly in French-speaking Switzerland, to support the French offer or rquestion the fairness of the selection process, the confidentiality of offers, the performance of the F35 et the actual management of the call for tender, since many people seem to discover that the principle of Best Offer is never respected, and that this type of competition involving several billion euros, gives rise to offers and counter-offers from participating manufacturers until 'at the last minute, in Switzerland as elsewhere.

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