You're absolutely right Polecat, about the Austrians chosing the EF. But I 'm sure I wasn't the only one who was completely surprised by that move. I guess the Austrians had to please their Big Brother for some reason, or maybe a lot of compensation orders were involved. I think the Swiss are less dependent on their northern neighbours, so less need to please. The Swiss haven't bought Saab products before, so why would they this time; I think Gripen is not as strong a contestant as the other ones. It might be the cheapest one, but budgettary restraints are usually not the decisive factor in Switzerland....
Polecat wrote:...so are Germany and Italy (Typhoon)...
Yes, that was said before by someone from the UK, as the point why the Swiss should select Typhoon instead of Rafale. I guess this one is posted to prove the neighbour isue is obsolete here.
De Zamboni heeft kramp in zijn achterwiel Jan Maarten Smeets, Heerenveen 31 oktober 2009
The Swiss are very fond of referenda, so you can expect the government to consult the people about the replacement of the F-5. Don't look surprised if they tick the box "no replacement at all" (which would probably happen in Holland as well if they consult us about the F-16 replacement).
SquAdmin wrote:you can expect the government to consult the people about the replacement of the F-5.
Is that because they are fond of referenda? I always thought it's their law to have these kind of things in referenda (which is quite the contrary with Holland).
De Zamboni heeft kramp in zijn achterwiel Jan Maarten Smeets, Heerenveen 31 oktober 2009
Posted: Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:06 Post subject:
SquAdmin wrote:
you can expect the government to consult the people about the replacement of the F-5.
Is that because they are fond of referenda? I always thought it's their law to have these kind of things in referenda (which is quite the contrary with Holland).
thankfully...getting womens'vote in 1991 may be democratic but not really civilised if u ask me.. but back to topic....
The Swiss have made surprising choices in the past, I'm really looking forward to their evaluation results. Also, I'd be interested in what aspects their requirements differs from the Dutch one, as they may rate these aircraft differently because they only intend to use them for home-defense so far and not for swing-role international peace-enforcing missions....
Basman wrote:I think the Rafale's the strongest contestant, for reasons already stated above. I just would like to add that AMD-BA and the Swiss already know each other from their Mirage-era, which might help as well. Bas
Well, if you know the history between the Swiss government and AMD-BA concerning acquisition of Mirage fighters, you would know that their relationship hasn't always been that good at all. So better don't draw conclusions from this. Read about the Mirage Affair at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... age_affair.
that was an interesting read about the Swiss Mirage-affair, didn't know about that. But from this piece of text it seems that AMD-BA was not the party to blame; the department who put up all the specifications, regardless of extra costs, was. Hence my viewpoint that budgettary restraints are rarely the decisive factor in Switzerland....
SquAdmin wrote:Don't look surprised if they tick the box "no replacement at all"
You could also ask what kind of threat the Swiss have with all the former eastern European countries now joining EU and/or Nato. Remind that they will not participate in any peace keeping or other international missions. So it is purely home defense. But against whom and what????
Arjan wrote:If thought that Boeing cancelled their participation because they believe that the Super Hornet is overqualified and therefor not interesting for the Swiss. It also costs a lot of money for the manufacturer just to run such a month of tests.
Ha ha ha, overqualified compared to the Euofighter, Rafale and Gripen? The biggest PR nonsense I ever heared...
Polecat wrote:but hey, you can expect anything in a country that didn't even have womens' voting rights till 1991....
There was only one canton (appenzell, east part of Switzerland) that introduce the women's suffrage in 1991. The other cantons had the women's suffrage already since long time.
Anyway the most of Swiss planespotters and others prefer also the Rafale and partly the Gripen. Unfortunately only 42% of swiss people (representative poll) would vote for a new fighter aircraft at the moment.
I don't think the Swiss will have to vote about anything yet. They will just buy it. They will only have to vote when somebody starts a anti-new-aircraft campaign and gathers a certain amount of signatures from people.
John Rambo wrote:I don't think the Swiss will have to vote about anything yet. They will just buy it. They will only have to vote when somebody starts a anti-new-aircraft campaign and gathers a certain amount of signatures from people.
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The other cantons had the women's suffrage already since long time.
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