Decibels rise against Swiss F-35 noise pollution

Communities around military airbases are raising the decibels about noise. (c) Copyright 2022, Dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte Vorbehalten

The Swiss defence ministry has provided more precise data on noise pollution by new fighter jets. Opponents say the levels remain “unacceptable” and are threatening legal action.

If you had to break down the latest report on the noise pollution of the new fighter jet into one sentence – it could be: Everything stays as it is.

At the beginning of 2022, the defense ministry gave information about F-35 noise pollution around the three military airfields of Emmen, Meiringen and Payerne.

The results: The new fighter jet is louder than the previous F/A-18 – specifically, it is three decibels louder when taking off. However, because the number of take-offs and landings will be halved in the future, overall noise pollution should not increase.

Now, almost two years later, the ministry is providing new results on noise pollution – these are based on a new calculation model from the Swiss Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute Empa. Although they are more precise than those from 2022, they ultimately come to a similar conclusion.

“Although an individual event for an F-35 take-off is a little louder, the annual burden remains roughly at today’s level due to the significant reduction in the number of flight movements,” writes the ministry.

In Emmen the overall noise pollution does not change, in Meiringen it decreases slightly and in Payerne it increases slightly.

The ministry is currently informing the affected communities around the military airfields. “We try to optimise where possible, for example by installing soundproof windows,” Bruno Locher, Head of Space and Environment, told Radio SRF. “But if someone doesn’t want the airfield and the fighter jet, we can’t do anything.”

There is resistance to the new fighter jet in several places. For example, from the interest group for less aircraft noise in the Alpine region (IGF Alpine region), which has been fighting against aircraft noise for decades. Board member Samuel Hunziker says: “Many are afraid of what lies ahead with the F-35.” A specific fear is that people will no longer be able to understand their own words when there is noise at the start.

Hunziker does not doubt the correctness of the data. “But the calculations are based on a theoretical average value and not on an effective noise value, on the individual event.” Noise measurements from the USA showed that the F-35 was “massively louder” than its predecessor.

The IGF’s demand: “The F-35 is not designed for a narrow mountain valley. That’s why we will fight against it using legal means.”

There is also resistance in Payerne. Nicolas Kilchoer, chief magistrate of the Broye district, says: “For us, the additional noise is unacceptable.” He calls for the number of annual flight movements to be reduced. “It has to be even fewer than the announced 4,200.”

He also demands – to compensate for the noise – that all maintenance of the F-35 be done in Payerne so that there are more jobs.

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