Here is the (long) list of financial flops of the Swiss army

Parliament recently granted an additional half a billion to the army. Money that has not always been well invested in the past.

Henry Habegger / ch media

The army will be able to spend an additional 530 million next year. This is what the Council of States decided last week, after the National Council. In total, the army will have 2.7 billion for war equipment. Even among those who voted for the envelope, we wonder if this is truly a good thing.

Are we not, once again, going to throw money out the window? By analyzing what has happened in the past, we indeed have cause for concern.

Paper planes

Ten years ago, Defense Minister Ueli Maurer (SVP) faced a more serious problem. He had bet everything on the Gripen, supporting the project body and soul, without even thinking of a plan B.

But the Gripen exploded in mid-air during the popular vote in 2014. Maurer therefore put pressure on buyers to find as many solutions as possible in an emergency. Objective: spend the military budget. This is how the “15+ Armament Program” was born, which cost 874 million.

Duro trucks

The main item of this lightning program was the maintenance of 2220 Duro trucks – 558 million. For the staggering sum of 250,000 francs per vehicle, GDELS-Mowag refurbished them one by one, notably by equipping them with a new Fiat engine.

A Hard One.Image: KEYSTONE

Hermès drones

Hermes drones. Israeli Hermes drones were acquired as part of the regular arms program – still under the Maurer era – for 250 million. Even if here too, the question of the calendar may arise. Consequence: years of delivery delays. The six drones should have arrived as early as 2019. “So far we have received five,” explains Armasuisse spokesperson Samanta Leiser. The last one should be ready in the third quarter of 2025.

Mortar 16

The army validated a purchase of mine launchers worth 404 million in 2016. It was a weapon developed internally, which only existed in prototype form. The device was to replace the 12 cm armored mine launcher, decommissioned in 2009. And once again, politics put pressure on the timing, in the wake of the Gripen flop. Financial Control will later regret it. The system should have been introduced from 2018. Now, we are talking about delivery in 2025.

Cases like this are not new. Even older files do not really provide reassurance:

The Mirage

In 1961, Parliament voted an appropriation of 871 million for 100 combat aircraft. The Air Force had deliberately failed to include costs such as equipment. In 1964, the legislature refused an additional credit of 575 million and established the first CEP in Swiss history. Ultimately, this was only enough for 57 Mirages, and an extension of 150 million was still necessary.

The 87 Leopard tank

From 1984, Switzerland acquired a total of 380 Leopard 2 battle tanks, for an amount of 3.53 billion. The last tanks had barely been delivered in 1998, the Minister of Defense Adolf Ogi (UDC) declared to the Council of States:

For economic reasons, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The tanks were worth 1.3 billion each. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we dusted off the “Leos”: Switzerland ceded 25 to Germany.

The M-109 armored howitzer

581 copies were purchased from 1968, of which 348 were modernized in the 90s for 600 million. And this even though the army leadership knew that it would only need 224 machines in the future, due to the reduction in numbers. A bad investment of 100 million denounced by the Daily Gazette in 2002. The M-109 is now to be replaced in 2025, a year earlier than planned, by a German artillery system: the Piranha IV tank.

Computer problems too

Observers believe that the risks of debacle have recently shifted to digital and that they are not diminishing. There is talk of overly ambitious projects, currently being pushed in particular by the head of the army Thomas Süssli. They will even more likely end in monumental financial bankruptcy.

Thomas Suessli, head of the army.Keystone

So, should we expect future military flops?

Armasuisse raises the alert: everything is under control

Regarding airspace surveillance, the Armasuisse spokesperson recognizes that “carrying out the two complex projects in parallel” to replace the command systems is “very demanding”. And this is due to “the high dependence on other systems and existing infrastructure”. But the teams are working intensely and the project “restarted at the beginning of December, after an interruption”. To be continued, therefore.

Armasuisse still claims to have the situation under control: “In principle, the projects under our responsibility are on the right track, both financially and in terms of deadlines,” explains the communicator. There will be no excess of the credits granted, but priorities must nevertheless be set in view of federal finances “as well as the significant need to catch up to strengthen the availability of defense”. Enough to shake up the plans a little.

(Translated from German by Valentine Zenker)

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