(Source: Defense-Aerospace.com; posted Dec. 23, 2019)
Only 10 lawmakers voted against the project, while 33 voted in favor and one abstained; the ensuing Federal Decree will now be submitted to a referendum.
The “Federal Decree on the Acquisition of New Combat Aircraft,” approved Dec. 20 mandates that the acquisition cost no more than 6 billion Swiss francs (at Jan. 2018 prices), and that it be coordinated technically and in terms of schedule with the parallel procurement of a ground-based air-defense system, which will be approved separately, and for which a cost ceiling of 2-billion Swiss francs has been set.
The Federal Assembly also finalized the offset requirements for the fighter purchase. Foreign suppliers awarded contracts under the program will have to compensate 60% of the contract value, of which 20% through direct offsets and 40% by indirect offsets to profit Switzerland’s technology and security industrial base, and notably in the field of machinery; metallurgy; electronics and electrical engineering; optics; watch-making; vehicle and wagon construction; rubber and plastic products; chemicals; aeronautics and space; computer and software engineering, and cooperation with universities and research institutes.
As far as possible, these contracts will have to be split between German-speaking Switzerland (65%), French-speaking Switzerland (35%) and Italian-speaking Switzerland (5%).
Click here for the related Federal Decree (2 PDF pages, in French), on the Reuters website.
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