{"id":196386,"date":"2008-05-01T23:07:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-02T04:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/05\/01\/switzerland-fighter-competition\/"},"modified":"2008-05-01T23:07:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-02T04:07:00","slug":"switzerland-fighter-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/05\/01\/switzerland-fighter-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland Fighter Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Basically, the Swiss have been operating F-5E\/Fs in 1976, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defenseindustrydaily.com\/switzerland-replacing-its-f-5s-04624\/\">and they are looking towards replacing them<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the competition were Boeing (F\/A-18E\/F), Eurofighter (Typhoon), Dassault (Rafale), and my favorite SAAB (Gripen).<\/p>\n<p>Boeing has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aviationweek.com\/aw\/generic\/story.jsp?id=news\/SWISS04308.xml&amp;headline=Boeing%20Ditches%20Swiss%20Fighter%20Bid&amp;channel=defense\">now pulled out of the competition<\/a>, even though they would appear to have a leg up, as the Swiss already operate the F\/A-18C\/D.   The official word was that their withdrawal was based on &#8220;Thorough review of Switzerland&#8217;s requirements for partial replacement of its Tiger fighter aircraft,&#8221; which I tend to agree with.<\/p>\n<p>The F\/A-18 is about two sizes larger than the F-5, and would require modifications to the facilities to accommodate their size.<sup>*<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>My guess would be that SAAB is at an advantage in this competition:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Range is not an issue, Switzerland is a small country.<\/li>\n<li>It is far less expensive than any of the alternatives, being around 1\/3 that of the Rafale and Typhoon.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s short field characteristics are probably the best, being designed, according to Swedish doctrine, to operate from stretches of roads.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s designed for austere maintenance by conscripts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One wonders if the Swiss would be interested in the base C\/D model of the Gripen, or if they would want the <a href=\"http:\/\/40yrs.blogspot.com\/2008\/04\/gripen-demo-rollout.html\">upgraded variant<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Considering their needs, I would expect them to go with the lighter original, as I&#8217;ve said, they do not need the payload\/range, which is already far in excess of the F-5s that are being replaced, though the AESA radar might be a part of an upgrade.<\/p>\n<p><sup>*<\/sup><span style=\"font-size:78%;\">It probably did not help when, earlier in the competition, Boeing claimed that it would <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aviationweek.com\/aw\/blogs\/defense\/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&amp;plckScript=blogScript&amp;plckElementId=blogDest&amp;plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&amp;plckPostId=Blog%3A27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3A8a1ff8cb-6b08-4d75-bba9-895b08e82264\">kick ass in short field capabilities<\/a> relative to the competition.<br \/>While the aircraft does take off in a remarkably short distance from an aircraft carrier, that involves the use of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;font-size:78%;\" >catapults and arresting gear<\/span><span style=\"font-size:78%;\">.<br \/>With the lowest power to weight ratio and highest wing loading of the competitors, they may have had representatives of the Swiss government laughing in their face.<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Basically, the Swiss have been operating F-5E\/Fs in 1976, and they are looking towards replacing them. In the competition were Boeing (F\/A-18E\/F), Eurofighter (Typhoon), Dassault (Rafale), and my favorite SAAB (Gripen). Boeing has now pulled out of the competition, even though they would appear to have a leg up, as the Swiss already operate the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1008],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-defense-procurement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}