Switzerland: Airbus, Dassault, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Eurosam and Raytheon Patriot are given three months more time for their fighter aircraft and air defense offers due to the effects of the corona pandemic.
Due to the difficult global situation in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, the second bids for new fighter aircraft and for new longer-range ground-based air defense systems in Switzerland (Air2030 project) are expected in November 2020. With this new date, the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) is responding to the fact that the manufacturing companies are also affected by the measures such as travel restrictions or home office and physical meetings are not possible. This new date has no effect on the further procurement schedule.
In January 2020, armasuisse submitted the second request for proposals for new fighter aircraft and new longer-range ground-based air defense systems to the government agencies of the manufacturers in question. The requests for proposals for new fighter aircraft were received from Germany (Airbus Eurofighter), France (Dassault Rafále) and the USA (Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed-Martin F-35A) and for ground-based GR systems from France (Eurosam SAMP/T) and the USA (Raytheon Patriot). The candidates were invited to submit their bids by August 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered measures worldwide that also affect all candidates in the manufacturing countries. Employees are absent or are unable to work on tenders continuously from home as they would at work due to the confidentiality of the dossiers. In addition, the travel restrictions make physical meetings between representatives of the candidates, Swiss industry and the DDPS more difficult. Discussions with Swiss industry representatives are necessary in order to drive forward the implementation of the requirements for compensation transactions in particular and cannot always be replaced by telephone or video conferences due to the classification of the topics to be discussed. The DDPS has therefore decided to give manufacturers an extra three months. The second offers must be submitted in November 2020. This gives the candidates the opportunity to submit bids of the required quality. This new deadline has no impact on the rest of the procurement timetable. The information from the second offer and the findings from the various testing activities will be used to determine the overall benefit of each system. The results, together with a comprehensive risk analysis, will flow into the evaluation report, in which the overall benefit of the new fighter aircraft or the new longer-range ground-based air defense system will be compared with the procurement and operating costs for 30 years.
Information on the program and the further program schedule can be found here can be found here. Here for further reports on Lockheed-Martin, here to reports about Boeing, here to further news about Dassault Aviation and here to further news about Airbus Defense and Space.
