Just finished the visit to the regional trivalent pole F-35 – FACO / MRO & U of Cameri (NO) of a delegation of the Swiss National Directorate of Armaments, led by the Secretary General of Defense and Civil Protection, Mr. Toni Eder.
The Swiss delegation was welcomed by the General of the Army Corps Luciano Portolano, Secretary General of Defense and National Director of Armaments, who, in the first phase of the meeting, illustrated to the counterpart the organizational features of the international program of 5 ^ generation F-35 and the organization of the trivalent pole of Cameri, one of the two realities in the world outside the United States (the other is in Japan) and unique in Europe.
The visit follows in line with traditional relations between the two neighbouring countries and reflects Switzerland’s decision to increase the defence budget from 0.8% to 1% of GDP and to focus decisively on modernising the national armed forces. With this in mind, the transalpine country, in September 2022, signed an agreement for the purchase of 36 F-35s with conventional take-off and landing, for a total value of 6.25 billion dollars. The aircraft will replace Switzerland’s domestic fleets of F/A-18 Hornet and F-5 Tiger between 2027 and 2030.
After an initial briefing, on the organization of the Piedmontese plants – assembly center and final verification of the F-35 program – the production and maintenance lines of the F-35 program were visited, which today includes, in various ways, 16 nations, without counting the countries that are asking to be able to equip themselves with the aircraft, and therefore already and in fact has an active role in European and transatlantic cooperation.
At the end of the visit, Mr. Eder said he was fully satisfied with what he had seen and congratulated himself for the level of excellence achieved and for the professionalism employed in the management of the trivalent pole of Cameri for the Euro-Mediterranean area. He also hoped that cooperation with Italy could expand to other cooperation programs in the field of defense, such as, for example, the construction of new command and control structures, to be included in the revision of the land instrument, and the participation of Swiss pilots in the training activities of the International Flight School at the Decimomannu base.
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