Swiss Air Force doubles permanently available F/A-18 fighter jet patrols
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Swiss Air Force doubles permanently available F/A-18 fighter jet patrols
The Swiss Armed Forces are increasing their readiness for air policing missions by a fortnight. During this time, the Air Force will double the number of F/A-18 fighter jet patrols permanently available from one to two.
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The aim of the test is to gain insights into the personnel and material resources required to strengthen the army’s defence capabilities, as announced by the defence ministry on Friday. This is against the backdrop of the changed security policy environment.
The test will be carried out by Air Base Command 11 from the Payerne military airfield in canton Vaud and will last from Saturday, May 3 to Saturday, May 17. During this time, four (instead of the usual two) F/A-18 fighter jets will be ready for take-off and deployment within fifteen minutes.
The plan is that the two patrols can be deployed flexibly – both as independently operating F/A-18 patrols and as a double patrol.
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Since 2021, the Air Force has kept two armed fighter aircraft on standby for air policing duty seven days a week and around the clock. In the normal situation, the two armed F/A-18s are mainly used for “hot missions” and “live missions”.
The former are “blue light missions” that are triggered when an aircraft violates Switzerland’s air sovereignty, seriously disregards air traffic regulations or is in an emergency situation.
“Live missions” are random checks of foreign state aircraft that are only authorised to fly over Switzerland with diplomatic clearance.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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