Swiss voters will ultimately decide whether or not the country moves forward with its proposed purchase of 36 fighter jets from the U.S.-based defense contractor Lockheed Martin, Swiss government officials announced this week.
The road to Lockheed Martin
In 2020, the Swiss Parliament passed a national referendum to modernize the Swiss air force by a razor-thin margin of 50.1 percent. The vote left the decision of which aircraft to purchase and who to buy them from up to the defense ministry.
In June 2021, Switzerland signed a contract to buy the F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin for $6.1 billion. Swiss government officials first explored buying Airbus’s Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault’s Rafale and Boeing’s Super Hornet, before settling on Lockheed Martin. If the deal goes through, Switzerland will be the 15th foreign country to do so.
But the plan was mired in controversy from the start and Swiss activists began collecting signatures for a voter referendum quickly after the announcement. Under Switzerland’s direct democracy model, any issue that garners more than 100,000 signatures triggers a voter referendum. Government officials confirmed this week that the required signatures have been verified and that the issue will go on a ballot.
The Swiss government has only until March to finalize the Lockheed contract so parliament will have to move quickly during its September session to agree upon terms for the referendum and get the issue on ballots. Parliament will have to abide by the results of the vote, but pulling out of the deal could put Switzerland in a delicate position with Washington.
Media reports from various sources are reporting that fighter jets of Indian Air Force crossed the Line of Control (LOC) to launch an offensive on Jaish-e-Mohammed camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK).
The attack has also been confirmed by the Major General Asif Ghafoor, spokesperson, Pakistan armed forces.
Here are the media reports and confirmation from official spokesperson of Pakistan armed forces.
The above tweet from Pakistan’s official spokesperson confirms the reports of media that Indian aircrafts have entered into Muzafarabad sector of POK.
However, his tweet highlights the fact that Pakistani forces have responded timely and no damage has happened.
This appears to be face-saving exercise.
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