Swiss defence ministry considers cancelling drone procurement

DDPS considers cancelling the drone procurement project Keystone-SDA

After numerous delays and mishaps, the Swiss defence ministry is considering cancelling the drone procurement project for the first time, according to National Armaments Director Urs Loher.

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Although he had long been of the opinion that cancellation was out of the question, they had now “reached a point where the question arises as to whether the famous last straw has broken the camel’s back,” Loher told Swiss public radio, SRF, on Friday.

This last straw refers to the automatic landing system that was due to be delivered in September. The Israeli company Elbit was unable to meet the deadline, which prompted the defence ministry to extend the deadline to January and then September 30. But “these two milestones were not met either”, said Loher.

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If the procurement project is cancelled, he personally assumes that Elbit will “certainly come with counterclaims”. There would then be a long legal dispute, the outcome of which would be uncertain.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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