US government is stealing money payed by Switzerland for F-35s. Basically Switzerland bought 5 patriot batteries but the USA couldn't deliver so they cancelled payments. Then the USA took payment for the F-35s and applied that as patriot battery payments then came back and said "sorry our f-35 deal has to be renegotiated and you have to pay 2x the original deal". Switzerland lost about 1.3 billion francs - 1.5B$ - so far.
And yet Switzerland is still going through with the deal but just buying half as many planes.
The least terrible option under the circumstances. Any single European country going in either the pivot-to-armed-independence or pivot-to-alliance-with-China route without the rest of Europe buying in to the move is doomed to failure, even before you consider that a couple EU members are very in favour of the status quo.
There's probably a bit of a pivot to European suppliers rather than the US. The gear isn't quite as good but you don't have to worry about Trump issues.
10 comments
[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 3.3 ms ] threadThis low effort, bad-faith, anti-intellectual trash is ruining this website.
And yet Switzerland is still going through with the deal but just buying half as many planes.
Oh well, guess we’ve blown up nearly a century of diplomacy to placate some narcissists.
Hit me again, hit me hard.