Swiss Air Force to retire flagship aerobatics team to cut costs and emissions

Patrouille Suisse: future secured by propeller planes instead of jets Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Air Force's renowned Patrouille Suisse team, will stop flying F5 "Tiger" jets by 2027, following the decision by parliament to decommission these aircraft.

The squadron, a symbol of ‘perfection, precision and performance’ will be replaced by the lesser-known PC-7 team, according to commander Nils Hämmerli. The PC-7 team uses cheaper, low-emission Pilatus PC-7 propeller-driven aircraft.

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For more than 60 years, the Patrouille Suisse has been ‘the showcase of Swiss aeronautics’, Hämmerli emphasised on the team’s official website, and has aroused the emotions of many Swiss people.

This was also experienced recently by the organisers of the Swiss Federal Wrestling and Alpine Games in Mollis, when the president of the organising committee received 70 hate mails after cancelling the traditional performance for sustainability reasons.

The Swiss army is aware of the symbolic importance of the Patrouille Suisse. “Air shows offer the army important opportunities to show the general public the work, capabilities and importance of the air force,” army spokesman Mathias Volken told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

For this reason, the most sensible solution seems to be for Switzerland to continue to have an aerobatic team after 2027, Volken added. The current plans, which do not meet with much political opposition, envisage the air force relying on the existing PC-7 team, which flies a ‘cheaper, low-emission turbine-propeller aircraft’, the spokesman continued.

The PC-7 team is much less well-known than the Patrouille Suisse, but has been active for many years. The pilots of the nine Pilatus PC-7 trainer aircraft enjoy “great recognition internationally as well,” Volken emphasised.

The PC-7 exhibition team is made up of pilots whose full time job involved flying F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets. Aerobatic displays are an activity carried out exclusively on an incidental basis, as is the case for the crew of the more famous Patrouille Suisse. The fact that aerobatic teams are not active on a full-time basis is a rarity worldwide, the army emphasises, highlighting the high capabilities of the Swiss Air Force.

PC-7 team founded in 1989

The foundations for what will probably be the air force’s new main promotional tool were laid by aerobatic displays with two Pilatus P-3 aircraft in the 1970s. The team, with its red-and-white aircraft, was officially founded in 1989 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Swiss Air Force.

Years later, the then government minister Adolf Ogi ensured that the squadron was not disbanded for reasons of cost savings. That is why, to this day, it still performs in shows in Switzerland and abroad.

For Patrouille Suisse fans, the replacement squadron will probably only be a meagre consolation. However, over the next two years there will still be opportunities to admire the jets in their acrobatics. There are currently no dates on the official calendar, but the programme for 2026 will be published, as usual, in the ‘first quarter’, according to the army spokesman.

In the meantime, Patrouille Suisse enthusiasts can prepare for the designated successors with propeller-driven aircraft. The next performance of the PC-7 team is scheduled for October 3, as part of the autumn festival in Stäfa in canton Zurich.

Adapted from Italian by DeepL/ac

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