SWITZERLAND IS looking towards its next fighter-aircraft purchase, following the roll out on 25 January of the first of 34 McDonnell Douglas (MDC) F-18C/Ds for its air force.
If funding becomes available, before the end of the decade, the Swiss air force will probably seek a second batch of F-18s, says commander in chief Lt Gen Fernand Carrel. If the programme is delayed beyond 2000, Switzerland will conduct a new fighter competition, he says.
Carrel says that the 34 F-18s, armed with the Hughes AIM-120 AMRAAM and purchased in 1993 for $2.3 billion, will be dedicated to the air-defence role as the number is insufficient for the aircraft to be used also in the strike role.
He says that the air force would like to regain a strike capability, which it surrendered when its Hawker Hunters were retired.
Although the F-18 will supersede the Dassault Mirage III in the air-defence role, the air force plans to keep the latter aircraft in service until 2006 as it has no replacement for the Mirage IIIR reconnaissance version. While stressing that no funding has been identified, Carrel says that a second batch of F-18s would give the air force a modest strike capability and allow it to undertake reconnaissance work.
Switzerland's Northrop F-5E/Fs will need replacing by around 2010. If a decision on a new fighter were delayed to around 2005-10, Carrel says, the result would be a totally new fighter competition.
Source: Flight International
