On 6 June 1993, six months after the «no» to the European Economic Area, Switzerland returns to the ballot box on a question that touches the heart of its identity: should it give up buying new fighter jets? The Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA), buoyed by the unexpected score of its 1989 abolitionist initiative, challenges Parliament's decision to procure 34 F/A-18 Hornet jets for nearly 3.5 billion francs.
The context is the post-Cold War moment. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the Eastern bloc has collapsed, and the army begins its «Army 95» reform, cutting numbers and abandoning the doctrine of all-round defence. In this climate, the GSoA judges the purchase both too expensive — with around 150,000 unemployed — and strategically obsolete.
Signature-gathering breaks a record: 181,707 signatures in 34 days. The Federal Council and Parliament, however, recommend rejection: without renewing the fleet before the decade's end, they argue, Switzerland could neither police its airspace nor preserve the credibility of armed neutrality.
The ballot verdict is clear: the initiative is rejected by 57.2% of voters and 19 of 23 cantons. The F/A-18 purchase is confirmed. Three decades later, the question remained who had seen rightly: the buying people or the initiative's backers.
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▲ Cantons that accepted
Basel-City, Basel-Country, Geneva, Jura, Ticino (5 cantons — initiative accepted locally)
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▼ Cantons that rejected
Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus, Zug, Fribourg, Solothurn, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Outer Rhodes, Appenzell Inner Rhodes, St. Gallen, Graubünden, Aargau, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel
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Actors and personalities
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▲ Yes camp
• GSoA (Group for a Switzerland without an Army, initiators) • Social Democratic Party (SP) • Greens , Labour Party (PdA), Ring of Independents • Lega dei Ticinesi and the Swiss Trade Union Federation
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▼ No camp
• Federal Council and Kaspar Villiger (head of the Military Department) • Parliament (National Council 117 against, Council of States 42 against) • CVP, FDP, SVP, Liberals, EVP, EDU • Vorort (business) and the Trade Association
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Arguments and verdicts
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▲ Arguments FOR (Yes camp)
Too costly a purchase amid recession
« 3.5 billion for aircraft while 150,000 people are unemployed: this money would be more useful elsewhere. »
— GSoA argument, 1993 ✗~ Partly refuted
The F/A-18 did indeed cost some 3.5 billion, but they formed the backbone of air policing for nearly thirty years. Far from being «wasted», the investment was fully used — and in 2021 Switzerland chose to renew it with 36 F-35A jets for over 6 billion, a sign that aviation spending was never durably questioned.
Source : swissvotes.ch; SWI, 30.06.2021
The end of the Cold War makes these jets pointless
« With the collapse of the Eastern bloc the threat is gone; these fighters are a luxury from another era. »
— Initiative committee, 1993 ✗ Argument refuted
Air-policing missions instead continued and intensified (WEF summits, airspace security, interceptions). Switzerland kept an operational combat air force and decided in 2021 to invest in a next-generation fleet. The idea that air defence had become superfluous did not hold.
Source : armasuisse, Air2030; DDPS
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▼ Arguments AGAINST (No camp)
Renewing the fleet before 1999 is essential
« Without new aircraft, Switzerland will no longer be able to defend its airspace from the decade's end. »
— Federal Council, 1992 message ✓ Argument confirmed
The 34 F/A-18 were delivered between 1996 and 1999, replacing the 1958 Hawker Hunters. They ensured air policing without interruption into the early 2030s, when the F-35A will relieve them. The government's announced timetable held.
Source : swissvotes.ch; admin.ch
The old aircraft are obsolete
« The Hunters date from 1958; keeping them in service would be irresponsible. »
— Military Dept., Kaspar Villiger, 1993 ✓ Argument confirmed
The ageing Hawker Hunters and Tiger F-5s could no longer ensure a credible defence. The multirole, then-modern F/A-18 filled this capability gap for three decades, confirming the obsolescence diagnosis.
Source : DDPS; Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
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Factual record
2 Confirmed | 0 Partly confirmed | 1 Partly refuted | 1 Refuted |
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A fleet that lasted three decades
Delivered from 1996, the F/A-18 served well beyond initial expectations and will be replaced by the F-35A around 2030. The Federal Council's central argument — the need for renewal — held true.
Source : armasuisse; admin.ch
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The cost debate never died
After the 3.5 billion of 1993, the F-35A bill (over 6 billion, decided in 2021) reignited exactly the controversy over the price of air power. The GSoA's financial critique never disappeared, though it never won a majority.
Source : SWI, 30.06.2021
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The bet on «the end of threats» disproven
The idea that the Eastern bloc's collapse made combat aviation superfluous did not hold: Switzerland kept and renewed its capabilities, airspace security remaining a permanent task.
Source : DDPS, Air2030
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Thirty years on, the 6 June 1993 vote reads as a defeat for the initiators confirmed by facts, and a win for the government camp. The F/A-18 fulfilled their mission beyond forecasts, and the 2021 decision in favour of the F-35A shows Switzerland never gave up a modern combat air force.
The GSoA's critique was not absurd, though: the cost remained considerable, and the question of the price of air defence is still topical. But the initiators' central argument — the strategic uselessness of fighters after the Cold War — was clearly disproven by the persistence of air-policing missions.
The vote illustrates a Swiss constant: an antimilitarist current able to mobilise over 40% of the electorate, against a majority attached to credible defence. This structuring tension recurs with every arms purchase, up to the F-35 debate.