I see the US buying a lot of cheese, chocolate, and clocks 😉

And make potus cry because US cheese, chocolate and clocks are perfectly as good? (joking)

No worries. Bern said that it was definitive because otherwise it would not be fair for other contenders. But as you say, any fighter purchase has a political side…

https://www.vbs.admin.ch/de/verteidi…html#reifegrad

Briefly, planes present versions are chosen by armasuisse. Any system must have at least a TRL7. Any further improvements can (or not) be selected by swiss

It was on Armasuisse request that considered the platform not mature enough.

Little “off” info. Tests in Payerne were catastrophic. Look down capability poor , follow ground capabilities and worse, when asked what about numbers of Cat 1 failures? The answer was we a re fully aware those will be fixed quickly of course”. Not to talk about capability to fly in alps environment. Trust me or not, F-35 finished last. Just ahead of EFT

Ok let’s clear a fewpoints (the last before i write an article). Mica NG will have dual datalink AND will be networked and part of FCAS.

Title may be a bit melodramatic

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/hidd…comes-erratic/

You trot this out every time as if it proves a thing. What was the availability of US assets during the GW? Near 100% What was the availability of the F-22 over Syria? Or the F-35 on it’s recent deployment?

And how many times did they fly/day (f-35 over Syria)?

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/06/12/the-pentagon-is-battling-the-clock-to-fix-serious-unreported-f-35-problems/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=Socialflow+DFN

half of the french do not fl because due ro intense opex they “used” their yearly hours. Still, the 50% remaining are full mission capable (our metrics). During Lybia, Rafale flew up to 35 hours per week with near 100% availability (no mission was cancelled). Show me F-35 doing that?
This is a part of the cost of the plane also. I takes one hour for 2 ppl lto change a Rafale engine (took 2 on the Eisenhower, i guess the french techs did hurry a bit so as to tease US ones…)

They are working very fine, will still be in production late 30ies and, more important, they will fly, not be hangar queens!