Federal vote on the procurement of the Gripen

The federal vote on the procurement of the Gripen was a Swiss referendum . A referendum had been taken against the federal law on the fund for the procurement of the Gripen fighter aircraft of September 27, 2013. The necessary signatures were submitted on time. The sovereign decided on 18 May 2014 against the purchase of 22 fighter aircraft of the type Gripen for the Swiss Air Force .

Voting question

Do you want to adopt the Federal Act of September 27, 2013 on the Fund for the Procurement of the Gripen Fighter Aircraft (Gripen Fund Act)?

Voting text

Federal Act on the Fund for the Procurement of the Gripen Fighter Aircraft (Gripen Fund Act) of September 27, 2013.

The Federal Assembly of the Swiss Confederation , based on Article 60 Paragraph 1 of the Federal Constitution , and having considered the Federal Council Dispatch of November 14, 2012, decides:

Art. 1 Fund
¹ A special fund according to Article 52 of the Financial Budget Act of October 7, 2005 (Gripen Fund) is set up for the procurement of the Gripen fighter aircraft.
² The Gripen Fund is legally dependent and keeps its own account.

Art. 2 Deposits and postponement of credit
¹ The Gripen Fund is accrued from the initial credit “Deposits in the Gripen Fund” (armaments expenses).
² With the resolutions on the budget and its amendments, the Federal Council can be authorized to increase the credit “Deposit in the Gripen Fund” at the expense of the following credits (credit postponement):

a. Defense:

1. Expense credit «armament material»,

2. Expense credit "Equipment and renewal requirements (AEB)",

3. Expense credit «Project planning, testing and preparation for procurement (PEB)»;

b. Armasuisse Immobilien: Investment loan “Tangible and intangible assets, inventories” (global budget).

³ In addition, the “Deposit in the Gripen Fund” credit can be increased by the non-budgeted additional income from the liquidation of army equipment and real estate with the resolutions on the supplements to the estimate.

Art. 3 Administration and withdrawals
¹ The administration of the Gripen Fund is the responsibility of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS).
² The DDPS is authorized to make payments from the Gripen Fund.

Art. 4 Fund accounting, debt and interest
¹ The funds of the Gripen Fund are invested by the Federal Finance Administration . They are accounted for in the annual financial statements of the federal government under equity.
² The Gripen Fund must not go into debt.
³ Interest is not paid on his funds.
⁴ The accounts of the Gripen Fund are checked annually by the Swiss Federal Audit Office.

Art. 5 Reporting
A detailed report on the deposits and withdrawals as well as the status of the fund assets is provided in the appendix to the annual financial statements of the federal government.

Art. 6 Dissolution
The Gripen Fund will be dissolved as soon as the procurement of the Gripen fighter aircraft has been completed. Remaining funds are shown as income in the federal income statement.

Art. 7 Referendum, entry into force and period of validity
¹ This law is subject to an optional referendum.
² The Federal Council determines the entry into force.
³ The law applies until the Gripen Fund is dissolved, but no later than December 31, 2024.

Opinions

The Federal Council

The Federal Council recommended that the law be adopted.

The federal councils

The National Council approved the bill by 119 votes to 71 with four abstentions, the Council of States with 25 to 17 votes with no abstentions. Both councils recommended the adoption of the law.

Parties represented in the Federal Assembly

The BDP , CVP , FDP , MCR and SVP recommended adoption of the bill. The CVP women, CSP , Greens , GLP and SP recommended rejection of the proposal. The EPP had decided to release votes.

Interest groups

The AUNS , Aerosuisse , Economiesuisse , the Farmers' Association , the Swiss Officers' Association , the Employers' Association , the Trade Association , Swissmem and the Association for Security Policy and Defense Science recommended the proposal for acceptance. The GSoA , the trade union federation , the protection association against flight emissions and the Swiss Association of Personnel in Public Services recommended the submission for rejection.

Arguments

Favorable arguments

• The air force could not reliably protect the Swiss airspace with the existing aircraft. In particular, the 54 F-5 Tiger aircraft are out of date and need to be replaced.
• The submission is economically reasonable. 54 old aircraft would be replaced by 22 modern aircraft.
• The Gripen is the most suitable aircraft for the replacement because it provides the necessary services and has the best cost-benefit ratio.

Negative arguments

• The procurement is unreasonable from a financial point of view. The procurement, operating and retrofitting costs over the entire operating life would amount to around 10 billion Swiss francs.
• The existing 32 F / A-18s were sufficient for the air police tasks required today. Before aircraft are bought, the Air Force's mission must first be clearly defined.
• It is unclear whether the aircraft type ordered will ever fly. However, Switzerland pays 40% of the purchase price in advance.

procurement

The planned procurement had a volume of 3.126 billion Swiss francs . It comprised:

• 22 aircraft Gripen E
• Equipped with short and medium-range air-to-air missiles IRIS-T and MBDA Meteor .
• Mission equipment for air-to-ground missions including guided bombs (laser and / or GPS-guided precision ammunition) and Litening III target lighting container for eight aircraft
• RecceLite reconnaissance tank for four aircraft
• Logistical support for the Swiss Air Force and industry, especially for RUAG Aerospace as the final assembler of the machines in Switzerland
• Infrastructure support for the military airfields, Emmen, Payerne, and Meiringen.

Two air force squadrons were to be equipped with the Gripen E. The locations were not yet fixed at the time of the vote.

A confidential evaluation report by the Luftwaffe was sent to the media by an unknown source in February 2012. According to the report, the evaluated Gripen Model C / D was less powerful than the competing products Eurofighter and Rafale and also less powerful than the F / A-18C / D in use at the time. The performance of the Gripen is sufficient for reconnaissance missions, but insufficient for air combat, ground combat and air police missions.

referendum

The referendum against the Gripen procurement was launched on October 8, 2013 by the Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA) together with left-wing parties and organizations. On November 6, 2013, a civic committee against the Gripen presented its arguments for the referendum. On January 29, 2014, the Federal Chancellery announced that the referendum had come about with 65,384 valid signatures out of 65,797 submitted.

poll

The law was rejected on May 18, 2014 with 53.4 percent no votes against 46.6 percent yes votes.

Gripen Fund Act - preliminary official final results

Canton	Yes (%)	No (%)	Participation (%)
Aargau	51.9	48.1	56.2
Appenzell Ausserrhoden	51.1	48.9	57.1
Appenzell Innerrhoden	60.8	39.2	51.4
Basel-Country	42.5	57.5	55.0
Basel city	32.3	67.7	57.9
Bern	49.1	50.9	52.7
Freiburg	40.6	59.4	57.2
Geneva	32.3	67.7	56.7
Glarus	59.9	40.1	51.0
Grisons	50.7	49.3	53.7
law	25.7	74.3	53.7
Lucerne	54.3	45.7	58.3
Neuchâtel	30.9	69.1	58.6
Nidwalden	68.2	31.8	63.0
Obwalden	63.8	36.2	60.8
Schaffhausen	49.4	50.6	70.4
Schwyz	61.5	38.5	59.4
Solothurn	50.3	49.7	53.9
St. Gallen	52.0	48.0	54.3
Ticino	45.3	54.7	54.8
Thurgau	55.6	44.4	54.2
Uri	62.4	37.6	51.2
Vaud	35.0	65.0	58.1
Valais	38.1	61.9	61.2
train	58.0	42.0	63.1
Zurich	48.6	51.4	56.9
Swiss Confederation	46.6	53.4	55.3

literature

• Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport : Documents for obtaining Gripen , accessed on May 16, 2014

Web links

• Referendum of May 18, 2014: explanations by the Federal Council
• Committee "Yes to Gripen"
• Committee against the Gripen
• Liberal Committee "No to Gripen"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Voting slogans of the parties and associations ( memento of the original from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at parlament.ch, accessed on May 14, 2014 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Chancellery : referendum of May 18, 2014: explanations by the Federal Council. (No longer available online.) February 12, 2014, archived from the original on May 14, 2014 ; accessed on May 15, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ SAF / OT & E Flight Test Effectiveness Report NFA Evaluation 2008/2009 (PDF; 3.6 MB) Commander Swiss Air Force. November 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
4. ↑ Titus Plattner: Ce qu'Ueli Maurer a caché , Le Matin . February 12, 2012. 
5. ↑ GSoA - Referendum against Gripen paper planes launched
6. ↑ The Liberal Committee "No to Gripen" presents its arguments for the referendum  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website no-zum-gripen.ch, November 6, 2013, accessed on May 16, 2014.  
7. ↑ Referendum against the Federal Act of September 27, 2013 on the Fund for the Procurement of the Gripen Fighter Aircraft (Gripen Fund Act) , press release by the Federal Chancellery, January 29, 2014, accessed on February 3, 2014.
8. ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : The people don't want the Gripen , accessed on May 18, 2014.
9. ↑ Preliminary official final results. Swiss Federal Chancellery, accessed on May 18, 2014 .