Switzerland considers ‘complete termination’ of US Patriot order, vows to extend payment freeze

BELFAST — Switzerland is deliberating over whether to cancel a long-delayed Patriot air defense system order, while saying that it will extend a payment freeze for the in-demand platform unless the US communicates a firm timeline for deliveries — the latest development in a high-dollar diplomatic spat between the two countries.

“We’ve informed them [the Swiss Federal Council] about this [Patriot termination] option today and we’re also making this option public today,” Switzerland’s defense minister Martin Pfister said at a press conference, according to an official translation.

“We are still assuming today that we will receive these systems; we don’t know when, and we are currently in the process of
negotiating all possible options with the US,” he added. “This also includes a complete termination.”

Pfister conceded that the conditions for a cancellation are unclear.

Last July Washington decided to reshuffle Switzerland’s Patriot deliveries to support urgently needed supplies to Ukraine, with Breaking Defense reporting earlier this month that Swiss delays could run up to five years. Even that window is in doubt however, likely because demand for the platform has grown markedly since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war with Iran. On Tuesday, Poland reportedly turned down an informal US request to send its Patriots to the Middle East.

In the meantime, Switzerland has grown increasingly impatient about the delay, publicly acknowledging today that it halted payments for the Patriots in the fall of 2025. The Swiss Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) said that Washington’s “reprioritization” of deliveries “significantly alters the contractual basis” of the acquisition.

The Swiss government says the Patriot order is linked to other Foreign Military Sale agreements, like a $7.5 billion order for F-35A fighter jets as well as spare parts for Swiss F/A-18 fighters. Bern says the US has pulled Swiss payments for those programs to fund Patriot production, which the European government warned risked timely delivery for the aircraft as well.

“For Switzerland’s security and defense, it is crucial that the delivery of spare parts for the F/A-18 and the procurement of the F-35A are not jeopardized by decisions concerning the Patriot system,” according to an online translation of the DDPS statement. The State Department had not responded to a request for information at press time.

The European nation signed off on an order for five Patriot systems in 2022 with deliveries originally set to take place between this year and 2028. Based on spiralling costs and an estimate from Urs Loher, director of national armaments at Switzerland’s defense procurement office, local media reported last month that the total price of the procurement could increase by 50 percent to reach CHF3 billion ($3.8 billion).

Near term, the troubling situation facing Switzerland threatens to get worse. Should the US’ Swiss FMS based fund’s liquidity dip below a “critical threshold, projects can be suspended and, if it falls further, terminated,” according to Bern. “This could affect not only the Patriot procurement but the entire Swiss Foreign Military Sales (FMS) portfolio with the USA.”

In March, Switzerland decided to cut its F-35 order by six aircraft, down to a fleet of 30 jets, after a contract dispute over increased pricing with the US government.

The Swiss defense procurement office has previously stated that terminating the stealth fighter contract “would have significant consequences,” rendering it incapable of guaranteeing the security of national air space from 2032 as the timeline coincides with F/A-18 aircraft retiring.