[ad_1]
The Swiss government has signed a CHF300 million ($331 million) contract for the purchase of new long-range missiles for the Patriot ground-to-air defence system.
This content was published on October 31, 2023 – 15:38
Keystone-SDA/ac
The purchase was announced by the Swiss army’s procurement agency armasuisse on Tuesday. The agreement had been approved by parliament in its 2023 communication on the armed forces. The PAC-3 MSE guided missiles from the US manufacturer Lockheed Martin will be sent to Switzerland in 2028 and 2029.
For the Patriot missile system, which is scheduled to be delivered from 2026 onwards, the procurement of further PAC-2 GEM-T type ordnance, which was established last year, is already in progress.
The PAC-3 MSE (Missile Segment Enhancement), armasuisse explains in a statement, is the newest Patriot missile type and is mainly used for defence against approaching short-range warheads. In contrast, the PAC-2 GEM-T (Guidance Enhanced Missile, Tactical) is primarily intended for defence against aircraft, drones and cruise missiles.
The new weapons, as well as the new F-35A fighter aircraft, are part of the Air2030 programme, which also includes the Radar and C2Air projects. The latter two concern the gradual replacement and renewal of the Swiss Air Force’s command and control system.
The contract was concluded with the US government because Switzerland purchases the guided missiles through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme.
How we work
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them hereExternal link.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look hereExternal link, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.chExternal link.
End of insertion
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
[ad_2]
Source link