Swiss May Reduce F-35 Purchase as US Squeezes Government

Switzerland may cut its order of 36 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 stealth fighters after failing to push through a fixed-price deal with the US government, driving up the cost by as much as 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.6 billion).

Negotiations between Swiss and US officials, including a phone call of Defense Minister Martin Pfister and his US counterpart Pete Hegseth, failed to sway the US to consider a fixed price, according to the government. Cost overruns will be somewhere between 650 million and 1.3 billion francs, the government said, another setback for Switzerland after the US slapped surprisingly high tariffs on the country.