Your headline says wet lease while the article says dry lease…
A dry lease seems to be better suited for an air force. 😉

my mistake 🙂

First Airbus A400M for Belgium spotted outside.

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well, when the contract for the F-35 was announced in October last year, the contract came out cheaper then expected.
with a leftover of about 365 million euro’s, it was said they intended to invest it in the FCAS program.
however, joining the development doenst neccesarily mean they will buy it.

news from Belgium:

Koksijde Air Base to close by end 2023, NH90-NFH’s to move to new hangars at Ostend-Bruges International Airport.

Florennes first to recieve F-35A in 2025, Kleine Brogel to follow in 2027, first Belgian F-35 is expected to roll off the assemblyline in 2023.

i think, imho that Gripen-E and the F/A-18E/F are the best bets for the Swiss.
the F-35A is too expensive and concidering Switserland has no desire to use theyre fighters in foreign wars, its stealth capabilities are irrelevant for pure defencive purposes.
the Typhoon is a bit overkill and too expensive to operate, however, if Austria decides to keep its Typhoon fleet, they might jointly operate the type and the SwAF can learn from Austrian experience.
as for the Rafale, i doubt the swiss will buy it, as France has a tendency to botch up its own export potential within europe.

Gripen has a very good chance of winning as it was previously selected to replace the F-5E, if it wasnt for the referendum on the deal (witch was a ver close call of 51/49 against) it would have ordered the type already and additional aircraft could be ordered to replace the Hornets.

the F/A-18E/F speaks for itsself as the SwAF already operates the classic hornet and the SH would offer some degree of commonality with the type and ease transition of pilots and personel.

Last formation flight for Belgian Seaking Mk48 fleet.

on december 19 2018, the Belgian Air Force flew the very last formation flight with its 3 remaining SeaKing Mk.48 helicopters.
the SeaKings are to be completly withdrawn from service in the next few months, RS02 is due to retire in Januari, RS04 & RS05 are to be retired on March 26, 2019, with the very last flight.

this forum is still horrible, it takes forever to post a simple reply and its F-CK-1ng slow!
i thought after more then a month this issue was resolved bit its still terrible and i get constant error messages!