The Swiss Federal Council has decided to purchase fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters from the United States, Defense News reports.
It is planned to purchase 36 aircraft for a total of $ 6.5 billion. The fighters should replace the aging F/A-18 Hornet. In the tender for the replacement of the latter, in addition to Lockheed Martin, proposals from Eurofighter, Dassault and Boeing companies took part.
The publication notes that the victory in the Lockheed Martin competition dealt a "serious blow" to the European companies Eurofighter and Airbus.
Defense News writes that the F-35A Lightning promises "the highest performance at the lowest price," which is $ 2.6 billion less than the cost of the nearest competitor's offer. Also, the American fighter demonstrated "better results in terms of efficiency, product support and interaction" than its competitors in the tender.
In June, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Alex Hollings, wrote in the Sandboxx blog that today the United States cannot produce fifth-generation F-22 Raptor fighters, since the corresponding production capacities and supply chains are involved for F-35 Lightning II aircraft.
Ivan Potapov
