Open Thread | How Is This NOT Thievery?

Reading this…
can you imagine this happening WITH ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION?

Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡
@shanaka86
BREAKING: The United States just took over $126 million from Switzerland’s fighter jet account to cover missile shortfalls in the Iran war.

Switzerland did not approve this. Switzerland did not consent. Switzerland had already frozen its Patriot payments after learning deliveries would be delayed four to five years. The US circumvented the freeze.

SRF, Switzerland’s national broadcaster, reported on March 26 that Washington redirected Swiss funds originally allocated for 36 F-35 fighter jets to cover Patriot air defence shortfalls using the Foreign Military Sales pooled trust fund, a structure that allows the Pentagon to reallocate payments across a buyer’s contracts without that buyer’s permission. Swiss armaments chief Urs Loher confirmed the diverted amount is a “low three-digit million” Swiss francs and called the situation “very unsatisfactory.”

The money Switzerland paid for jets is now subsidising a war Switzerland refused to participate in. Bern halted new arms exports to the US on March 20 citing the Iran conflict. Switzerland rejected two US military flyover requests linked to Iran operations. Two hundred years of armed neutrality, and Washington reached into the account anyway.

Here is why.

The United States fired 943 Patriot interceptors defending Gulf states in the first four days of Operation Epic Fury per a US Congressional study cited by the Jerusalem Post last week. Lockheed Martin and Boeing produce 620 Patriot interceptors per year combined. In four days, America burned through eighteen months of global Patriot production. The war has consumed roughly one-third of the entire THAAD missile stockpile. Annual THAAD production does not exceed 100 units.

The cost asymmetry is what makes the depletion irreversible at current production rates. Each PAC-3 interceptor costs $3.9 million. Each Iranian Shahed drone costs between $20,000 and $50,000. The cost exchange ratio is 114 to 1 in Iran’s favour per Military Times. Iran manufactures an estimated 10,000 Shaheds per month per Reuters. America produces 620 interceptors per year. Iran builds more drones in a single week than the United States builds interceptors in an entire year.

Every interceptor fired in the Gulf is one that cannot be delivered to Switzerland, Ukraine, Taiwan, Japan, or Poland. The State Department warned allies on March 27 that Patriot deliveries to Ukraine would face disruptions as the Pentagon prioritises Iran per Quiver Quantitative. Senator Chris Murphy said on record: “We’ve been told again and again one reason we can’t provide interceptors for the Patriot system for Ukraine is that they’re in short supply.”

Lockheed signed a framework to quadruple production to 2,000 units per year. That capacity will not arrive for six to seven years. The Pentagon has asked Congress to shift $1.5 billion from other programmes to accelerate procurement per Bloomberg. None of this helps now. The interceptors are depleting now. The allied accounts are being raided now.

Switzerland is considering reducing its F-35 order from 36 to 30 jets and accelerating evaluation of European alternatives per Bluewin and Global Defense Corp. Swiss parliamentarians have called the redirection “an unacceptable violation of procurement sovereignty.” The Swiss parliament is preparing formal hearings.

Switzerland is the canary. A neutral country with two centuries of armed neutrality just had its fighter jet money taken without consent to feed a four-week-old war that burns 18 months of interceptor production every 96 hours.

Every US ally with a pending defence contract should be asking one question: whose account is next?

Full analysis: https://open.substack.com/pub/shanakaanslemperera/p/the-architecture-of-bypass?r=6p7b5o&utm_medium=ios
https://x.com/shanaka86/status/2037843337148006407?s=20

This entry was posted in Breaking News, Defense Contracts, Military Weaponry, Open Thread, Politics and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

15 Responses to Open Thread | How Is This NOT Thievery?

  1. rikyrah says:

    Miss Aja
    ‪@brat2381.bsky.social‬
    Give the Noem family the same prayers and privacy they gave to immigrant families they pulled out of their homes in the middle of the night or on their way to work/school.

    I got off the high road November of 2024🤷🏾‍♀️
    6:17 PM · Mar 31, 2026

    https://bsky.app/profile/brat2381.bsky.social/post/3mifcqppfwc2y

  2. rikyrah says:

    Barak Ravid
    @BarakRavid
    🇺🇸🇮🇷President Trump isn’t just befuddling foreign leaders and financial markets with his mixed signals on Iran. Advisers who speak regularly with the president say they’re just as uncertain.
    @MarcACaputo
    and I write for
    @axios
    https://x.com/BarakRavid/status/2039298696014102758?s=20

  3. rikyrah says:

    Miss Aja
    ‪@brat2381.bsky.social‬
    Some folks keep asking me why the majority of Black Folks are so protective of our Jewish allies & friends…HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF WHY.

    Some of y’all are so full of hate and antisemitism that you refuse to look at how this demographic has consistently stood up for

    forward.com/news/816427/…
    https://bsky.app/profile/brat2381.bsky.social/post/3mifxpyer2c2w

  4. rikyrah says:

    Steve Vladeck

    ‪@stevevladeck.bsky.social‬

    Follow
    Obviously, we haven’t yet heard from Cecilia Wang on behalf of the plaintiffs. But the #SCOTUS birthright citizenship argument is shaping up as a blowout against President Trump.

    I count at least seven votes against the executive order just in the questions to Solicitor General Sauer. Maybe more.
    9:56 AM · Apr 1, 2026

    https://bsky.app/profile/stevevladeck.bsky.social/post/3migx7lde5s2r

  5. rikyrah says:

    Michelle 🪷🇲🇽🇺🇸🌵
    ‪@chicana74.bsky.social‬

    Follow
    Trump administration must restore the legal status of potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States legally through a Biden-era pathway, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

    abcnews.com/US/administr…
    https://bsky.app/profile/chicana74.bsky.social/post/3migt336j4k2r

  6. rikyrah says:

    Bill Madden
    @maddenifico
    Humiliated Trump storms out of catastrophic SCOTUS hearing: After less than 90 minutes of watching several of his own handpicked justices tear his arguments to shreds, the butthurt buffoon abruptly left. https://tinyurl.com/mr2eksu2

    The pedophile psychopath’s motorcade exited the Supreme Court and zipped down Independence Avenue at about 11.25 am.😂🤣👇
    https://x.com/maddenifico/status/2039377161803403325?s=20

  7. rikyrah says:

    Barak Ravid
    @BarakRavid
    🚨Mehdi Tabatabai Iranian President’s Pezeshkian’s deputy spokesman wrote on X that “the text of an important letter by Pezeshkian addressed to the American people will be released within the next few hours”
    https://x.com/BarakRavid/status/2039399664475087276?s=20

  8. rikyrah says:

    Democratic Activists
    ‪@democratswin.bsky.social‬

    Follow
    BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled that President Trump can be held accountable for his actions on January 6.

    Bring on the lawsuits. trib.al/0o2sUOQ
    https://bsky.app/profile/democratswin.bsky.social/post/3mihcuia6722u

  9. rikyrah says:

    NATIVE.AMERICANS.

    Aaron Rupar
    @atrupar
    GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans are birthright citizens under your test?

    SAUER: Ah, I think … so. I have to think that through.
    https://x.com/atrupar/status/2039360113350189428?s=20

  10. rikyrah says:

    Black Media Hub ✊🏿
    @BlackMediaHub
    Highland Beach, Maryland, Est. 1893. 133 years ago, Charles Remond Douglass established a waterfront summer town for affluent Black Americans to build summer vacation homes.

    In 2026 it remains Black majority with 100% generational ownership and its own police force. Home videos from the 1950s..
    https://x.com/BlackMediaHub/status/2039116115255689556?s=20

  11. rikyrah says:

    FactPost
    @factpostnews
    A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to provide access to religious services for immigrants held in detention facilities.
    https://x.com/factpostnews/status/2039357422851019155?s=20

  12. rikyrah says:

    This is about the 14th Amendment – Birthright Citizenship case at the Supreme Court

    The Daily Beast
    @thedailybeast
    After less than 90 minutes of watching several of his own handpicked justices tear his arguments apart, the president abruptly left.
    https://x.com/thedailybeast/status/2039375716190495011?s=20

  13. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊

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