if the Swiss people keep rejecting a new fighter purchase (why wouldn’t they, they are surrounded by very powerful close allies, they’re not worried about invasions), then Switzerland will end up with an obsolete air force until at least 2030
but if the military can buy a fleet of UCAVs at a fraction of the price to fulfill the intercept role at a fraction of the operational cost, I imagine the Swiss people would be willing to support that, it’s not that different from buying missiles
100 UTAP-22s would cost $200 million, even with (minimal) training and support equipment cost that’ll be a fraction of the $8 billion needed for a manned fighter purchase
that’s 100 reusable cruise missile that can do recon, drop bombs, escort air intruders
or if you put Stingers or Sidewinders on there, they’ll pose a serious threat to any aircraft, if only because they can be launched from literally anywhere and don’t use radar, making them very hard to see coming, like a SAM
in addition as technological evolution speeds up, it’ll be possible to upgrade even obsolete F-18 and F-5 at fraction of the cost with the latest technology and weapons
for example the Marines are upgrading their F-18Cs with AESA radars (for about $3 million each), as well as extending their service life, meant to keep them operationally relevant until 2030: https://www.military.com/defensetech/2019/01/22/marines-classic-hornet-jets-get-upgraded-radar.html
alternatively there’s the Malaysian upgrade program for about $2 million per F-18 that’s said to put them on par with the F-18E/F: https://www.nst.com.my/news/exclusive/2017/07/260429/more-lethal-sting-rmafs-hornets
$5 million to get $70 million worth of ability for 10 years is a good deal
the UTAP-22 would cost as little as $2 million, essentially flies itself (so minimal cost for pilot training and ground control station) and has a flight envelope similar to an F-16 without an afterburner
payload is small but still enough for a pair of SDBs or Sidewinders, which also makes sales much easier legally speaking (they’ve been pre-approved by Congress to all major US allies) so delivery could take place as soon as next year probably (if there’s room in Kratos’ production schedule, the USAF probably ordered a few hundred already)
once again: there is NO suitable UCAV for swiss needs, zero, nada… period.. forget it
you can buy a bunch of Cessnas 172 for a fraction of the cost of the UCAVs and they would be just as useful..
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