Swiss Air Force to practise taking off and landing on motorway
The A1 motorway near Payerne will be closed to traffic when fighter jets are taking off and landing on it
Keystone / Anthony Anex
The Swiss Air Force has received the green light from the government for take-offs and landings of F/A-18 fighter jets on the A1 motorway between Avenches and Payerne in western Switzerland.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Português
pt
Força Aérea Suíça pratica decolagem e aterrissagem em autoestrada
The motorway section will be closed for a maximum of 36 hours from June 4 to June 6, the government decided on Wednesday.
Planning is being carried out in close collaboration with the Federal Roads Office and the cantonal police of Vaud and Fribourg, the government added. During the closure of the motorway section, traffic will be diverted via the cantonal road network.
With the exercise on the A1, the Swiss Armed Forces are pursuing the goal of testing and expanding the ability to decentralise their air defence resources. The air force wants to test whether its fighter aircraft can also be deployed from improvised locations, such as motorways.
The security situation in Europe has deteriorated further in recent years, particularly with the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, according to a government statement. It said that in order to continue to fulfil its core mission of protecting Switzerland and its population, the armed forces must consistently strengthen their defence capabilities in all areas of action – ground, air and cyberspace.
The Swiss Air Force carried out similar tests on motorway sections in the 1970s and 1980s with Hunter and F5 Tiger fighter aircraft.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
Switzerland to step up humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Syria
This content was published on
The Swiss government decided to allocate an additional CHF7 million to the two countries in response to the escalating violence in the Middle East.
Report exposes widespread hygiene issues in Swiss hospitals
This content was published on
A Swissmedic report found that nearly all of the 25 Swiss hospitals inspected had issues with disinfecting, sterilising and packaging of medical products.
Swiss bank Mirabaud closes brokerage unit due to poor performance
This content was published on
The move spanning the bank’s global operations means a loss of 17 jobs, including five each in Switzerland and the UK, and seven in Spain.
Guterres condemns Israel’s plan to label UNRWA a terrorist organisation
This content was published on
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has spoken out against a law proposed by the Israeli parliament that would classify UNRWA as a terrorist organisation.
This content was published on
The Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich is the best university in continental Europe, according to the Times Higher Education ranking.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.