Swiss Air Force

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

F-18C

F/A-18C taxis for takeoff

Dauphin

Learjet 35A

The Swiss Air Force (Schweizer Luftwaffe, Forces aériennes suisses, Forze Aeree Svizzere) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces. It was established on July 31, 1914 but did not become a separate service until 1936.

During World War II, it defended Swiss airspace against incursions by both Allied and Axis aircraft, shooting down aircraft from both sides of the conflict.

A report in the Swiss news magazine FACTS reveals that the Swiss Air Force only provides ready-to-take-off aircraft during office hours – on working days. The air force staff declared that, due to financial limits, they are not operational 24/7.^[1] The difficulty of defending Swiss airspace is illustrated by the small size of the country; the maximum extension of Switzerland is 348 km, a distance that can be flown in little over 20 minutes by commercial aircraft.

Its primary front-line air-defence fleet consists of 33 F-18 Hornets (34 were originally bought, but one crashed) and 54 remaining F-5 Tiger IIs (110 were originally purchased). In 2010 the Swiss Air Force plans to begin retirement of the F-5 and wants to acquire three Neuen Kampfflugzeug / New Warplane (NFK) squadrons to replace them. As with the earlier F/A-18 procurement conducted in the late 1990s, this is expected to prove a politically fraught procurement due to Switzerland`s socialist, anti-army and green groups, which are all opposed to such purchases. The Patrouille Suisse will need to change to to a new aircraft, either the F/A-18 Hornet or the new fighter. Although they are likely to acquire the new F/A-18 E/D SuperHornet, other 4.5 generation fighter planes such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen are being considered.

In 2011 the Swiss Air Force will also be retiring its venerable fleet of 60 Aérospatiale Alouette III.

The national aerobatic demonstration team of Swiss Air Force is the Patrouille Suisse, which flies the F-5 Tiger aircraft.

1 Aircraft
2 Airbases
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Aircraft

This military aviation article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[edit] Airbases

The Swiss Air Force has nine air bases, the most important of these being Payerne, in western Switzerland. The others are the helicopter base at Alpnach, a dormant base at Buochs and several other bases at Bern, Dübendorf, Emmen, Meiringen, Sion and Locarno. The air force will however soon close Mollis, and Alpnach will be reduced in size.