The Swiss army is testing its ability to decentralize this week. Highlight of the show: F/A-18 fighter jets are scheduled to land and take off on the A1 motorway on Wednesday. But the challenge lies above all in the preparation of the track, explains Colonel Rolf Imoberdorf on Tuesday in La Matinale. This logistical challenge begins Tuesday.
Colonel Rolf Imoberdorf is the conductor of this major exercise. On the agenda: transform the A1 motorway into a landing strip for combat aircraft. If the Swiss army succeeds in preparing the track, the operation will be successful, summarizes the colonel on Tuesday in La Matinale de la RTS. He recalls that the army is testing its ability to “disperse equipment and personnel in Switzerland, in order to better protect our equipment and have greater freedom of maneuver”.
>> Read also on this subject: The A1 between Payerne and Avenches closed from June 4 to 6 for exercises with army F/A-18s
With this exercise, the army is training to decentralize an air base that would be under threat and have more possibilities to engage its planes. Today, Switzerland has only three air bases – Payerne, Meiringen and Emmen – whereas there was a time when practically every Alpine valley had its runway and hangars in the rock.
A test in response to geopolitical changes
A test of this scale has not been carried out since 1991 in Ticino. Why did you wait so long to do such an exercise again? “This is certainly due to changes in geopolitics,” explains Rolf Imoberdorf. “This exercise is part of strengthening the defense capacity of the Swiss army,” underlines the colonel.
At one time, Switzerland believed that the army did not need this capacity, but “nowadays, it could be relevant again”, underlines the colonel. Asked about a fictitious scenario that would require the relocation of an air base to Switzerland, Rolf Imoberdorf replied that “perhaps we shouldn’t even talk about a fictitious scenario”, given “what happens every day around the world, especially in eastern Europe, we see that this type of operation is carried out almost every day. This exercise is “a reaction to the framework conditions”.
Why in Payerne?
Why did you choose Payerne, when there is an airfield nearby? Precisely because there is “a ready base, in the event of an unforeseen event”, answers Rolf Imoberdorf, but above all because “this section of motorway was already prepared for this type of operation in the 1990s” and also because There is “a little less attendance” than on other sections.
With this test, does the army risk inflaming tensions among residents of the region, who are already criticizing the noise linked to the military airfield? The colonel wants to reassure: “four planes” will land and take off on Wednesday, so “there are not a lot of flight movements planned”.
Farmers were also informed, emphasizes Rolf Imoberdorf. Two information sessions were organized to explain how they can access their cultures and work during the military exercise.
Radio interview: Pietro Bugnon
Web adaptation: Julie Liardet
