And Now the Swiss

It looks like a move is afoot among the Swiss polity to cancel their F-35 order.

Once again, it's tariffs.

The F-35 never made sense for the Swiss:

• They do not need a long range aircraft.
• They do not need aggressive interoperability with NATO forces.
• They do not need stealth.
• They do not need a plane that large.  (They carved aircraft hangars into mountains in the 1960s to fit Mirage IIIs, and need to enlarge them to fit)
• They do not either a CATOBAR or STOBAR capabilities, because they have no aircraft carriers.
• There are significant concerns that the US can shut down the operations of the F-35 at the flip of a switch.
• The aircraft are expensive to operate, particularly since major maintenance has to be performed by Lockheed Martin.
• New weapon systems must be qualified through Lockheed Martin. 

Seriously, the Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen, J-10 all cost less to operate, and have architectures that allow the operator to develop their own systems.

They need a relatively inexpensive fighter, and lots of well trained pike-men.