Israeli drone headache continues for Swiss army

Switzerland ordered six Hermes 900 HFE drones from Israel. Keystone

The Swiss army’s long-running problems with a consignment of Israeli reconnaissance drones has hit another snag: the drones need reprogramming to prevent collisions with other flying obstacles, such as paragliders.

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Federal defence contractor Ruag must fix the problem with the six Hermes 900 HFE (ADS 15) drones from Israeli company Elbit, according to Swiss broadcaster SRF.

A letter from the parliamentary finance committee to defense minister Viola Amherd shortly before Christmas, which Swiss public broadcaster SRF has seen, reveals doubts as to whether Ruag will really succeed in doing this.

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The committee criticises the “slow development” and writes that the “detect and avoid” system poses “significant risks with regard to technical feasibility, approval and costs.” Without this system, “the autonomous operational suitability of the drones would be severely limited and the operating costs would be significantly increased.”

Helicopter escort

Limited operational suitability means that in order to avoid collisions, the reconnaissance drones would need an escort vehicle. “For example a helicopter or another fixed-wing aircraft,” says Urs Loher, director of the Federal Office for Armaments (Armasuisse). As the client, however, he assumes that Ruag will be able to programme it successfully. An external report has also confirmed the feasibility.

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“Helicopters? That’s totally absurd, I can only shake my head,” says security politician Mauro Tuena, Swiss People’s Party parliamentarian. The new drones should, among other things, help to discreetly control the borders in the event of peace. “A drone flies high up and is very quiet, you have to look carefully to see if you can see it. A helicopter is loud and cannot fly as high, so we would have the same as today and would have paid CHF300 million for it.”

“Parliament approved the drones in 2015, with a requirement profile, and in 2025 the drones are still not needed,” added Tuena. “Armasuisse must now massively increase the pressure.”

The letter from the finance committee mentioned disagreement between Armasuisse and Ruag over the scope of the contract and discussions about additional costs running into the millions. “This issue has now been clarified and an agreement reached without an additional budget,” Loher told SRF.

Delivery delays

The slow programming of the drones’ evasive capabilities is another of many problems within drone procurement. It is already known that only four of six drones have been delivered and that they will probably not be fully operational until 2029 rather than 2019.

One sticking point is still the Swiss requirement that the drone should be able to land autonomously without GPS. The Israeli company Elbit had presented adaptations to make this feasible, says Loher. “At the beginning, we were probably too trusting that it would work out well.”

The criticism of the drone procurement is just one of several points that the finance committee criticises in its letter. It writes that it has recognised with “great concern” that the situation of the key and top projects in the defence ministry has “significantly worsened.” “Given a total volume of around CHF19 billion, the increasing delays, rising risks and inadequate resources are worrying.” The finance committee wants to further strengthen its supervision of the defense ministry.

Adapted from German by DeepL/mga

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