Switzerland is considering scrapping a multimillion-dollar deal with Israel's Elbit Systems after repeated delays and technical difficulties, Swiss media reported on Sunday.
According to the report in Swiss public broadcaster SRF and in the leading NZZ newspaper, Elbit was contracted a decade ago to supply the Swiss Defense Ministry with six Hermes 900 Starliner drones for $380 million.
According to the reports, Elbit promised more than it could deliver. "The technical difficulties were grave," the report said. "the drones would require choppers or other aircraft to fly with them to prevent air collisions," despite Elbit's promise that the drone would be able to fly autonomously and would be able to navigate in civilian routes without incident.
Questions about that ability were raised in another report from earlier in the year after the drone appeared to have trouble navigating around the high Swiss mountain peaks and was also unable to recognize flocks of birds during its flights.
The Swiss are tired of the technical difficulties that cannot be solved and the delays after Elbit promised delivery in 2019. Thus far, four of the six drones were delivered and the remaining two will probably only arrive in 2029, a full decade late. Switzerland's primary demand of the drones was autonomous landing without GPS.
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Swiss Defense Minister Martin Pfister would make his decision on whether to cancel the purchase of reduce the number of drones, by end of summer, NSS said. Scrapping the deal all together could cost the Swiss upwords of 300 million dollars.
Cancelling such a purchase was considered "not done" until recently but the Swiss had run out of patience and trust between Elbit and the Swiss government has eroded. According to reports, Swiss officials met with representatives of Elbit in Cyprus recently in what was described as an unfriendly meeting after the Israeli firm continued to miss deadlines for delivery.