Army considers bringing Switzerland’s disused bunkers back into service

Disused bunker: the army is considering bringing it back into service Keystone-SDA

The tense geopolitical situation in Europe is prompting the Swiss defence ministry to reassess the importance of old, disused bunkers.

The requirements regarding protection, resilience and decentralisation of the Swiss army have increased, and the need for secure storage facilities has also grown, the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport told Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS, confirming a front-page report in the German language Blick newspaper.

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In particular, secure storage facilities are being sought for the storage of consumables, spare parts, medicines, electronic equipment, dangerous goods and even ammunition.

To this end, the Federal Office for Armament (Armasuisse) has launched a public tender to assess the possibility of bringing disused bunkers back into service. A study is to set out how these underground military facilities can be reactivated in an innovative and cost-effective manner, it was stated.

For reasons of confidentiality, neither the number of bunkers nor any further details are being disclosed. According to government information, the army’s former property portfolios included a considerable number of underground supply facilities, ammunition caverns, military hospitals, aircraft bunkers, gun emplacements, protected accommodation, shelters and command posts.

It is not known how many underground facilities of this type there are in Switzerland. Historical sources refer to around 20,000 ‘defence structures’, as reported by the Swiss German-language daily. In addition to these, there are around nine million protected places distributed across some 370,000 private and public shelters, as indicated on the website of the Federal Office for Civil Protection.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.