Switzerland to Spend Billions on Fighter Jets — Why?

Neutral Switzerland reveals plans to spend billions on new fighter jets despite not having fought a war in two hundred years, and the burning question is why?

Which of the country’s neighbors is Switzerland planning to fight?

Alternatively, what is the name of the hostile country against which they must defend themselves?

Maybe they plan to abandon their neutrality to join forces with the E.U. and transfer their military stash to a mum’s–the-word European Army.

Opposition by the Swiss is loud and clear with the thinking that military hardware is not something the country can afford, neither is there a pressing need for it.

Voters will have the opportunity to have their say on September 27 on whether the plans should go ahead.

The planned aircraft will replace the country’s present fleet that becomes non-operational in 2030.

The new fleet is likely to be comprised of either the Eurofighter from Airbus or the Lockheed F35-A Lightning 11 among others.

A Social Democrat member of parliament called the plans absurd asking, who would attack a country surrounded by NATO.

She agreed the country needed a new aircraft, but said a ‘simpler aircraft’ would be enough and said it would be ‘better to have a Fiat than a Maserati’.

Six years ago, voters in Switzerland rejected the purchase of Gripen jets from Sweden.

In 1989, a proposal to scrap its entire army got 35 per cent of voter support, but the Pope’s Swiss guards are a reminder of the country’s mercenary past.

Lawmaker Thomas Hurter from the more rightist Swiss People’s Party, a former air force pilot, said Switzerland had to protect itself without relying on other countries.

He said smaller jets did not have the acceleration needed to react quickly to emergencies.