An Hermes 900 from Swiss Air Force after delivery in 2019 by Israel. To date, the drone is not yet fully operational.Image: KEYSTONE
The Federal Department of Defense, Protection of Population and Sports (DDPS) is currently experiencing some problems. The culprit? Swiss “perfectionism”.
Follow meWhen Viola Amherd announced his rather unexpected resignation, he was criticized for fleeing the problems within the Department of Defense (DDPS). And there is no shortage of these. The war in Ukraine brought the DDPS from the status of “punitive task” to that of key wallet, but Switzerland has trouble managing the change of time.
Parliament wants to significantly increase the army budget, but even the bourgeois camp regrets the absence of a clear strategy on the part of Viola Amherd for the acquisition of war materials. Added to this is a considerable list of snags in current projects, with delays and additional costs.
In parallel, a prestigious project is threatened with an landing in disaster in the proper sense of the term. In 2015, Parliament decided to buy six hermes 900 -type recognition drones from the Israeli manufacturer Elbit for nearly 300 million francs. The project was initially completed in 2019, but the Confederation Table now on 2026.
The head of the army Thomas Süssli and the head of armament Urs Loher (right) struggle with acquisition problems.Image: keystone
A bad posture drone
Drones should be fully operational by 2029. But for Federal Finance Control (CDF), the project is in poor position. His report is not tender, the state of the project is:
“The result of a combination of too ambitious objectives, deficient planning and piloting, risk management and insufficient quality as well as an underestimated complexity.”
It was therefore strong that prompted the Federal Armament Office, Armasuisse, and its URS Loher chief to organize Wednesday, upstream of the publication, a meeting with the media and specialists. Urs Loher then kicked out in touch:
“We do not agree with the control of finance on essential points”
Disputes with the manufacturer
The situation is “demanding, even difficult, it does not meet expectations”, but the budget and the calendar remain unchanged, and a certification by 2029 would be “possible”, for the head of armaments. A stop of the acquisition is in any case not possible, because five drones have already been delivered, the sixth will follow during this year. Urs Loher must have recognized problems. Thus, a Hermes Drone was recently damaged in India during a test flight.
One of the reasons would be the Israeli wars in the Middle East, which absorbs the manufacturer. At the same time, he recognized that Switzerland’s special requests are partly responsible for the problems encountered.
Difficult to go to rider alone
In fact, an acquisition project has transformed into a development project, criticizes the CDF in its report. Recognition drones must have practically had to be rejected. It is especially the defrosting system which poses “relatively many difficulties”, we learned during the meeting with the press.
But the biggest problem is the “Detect and Avoid” system (DAA). This system allows the drone to detect objective signals in the civil aircraft space. This concerns for example paragliders or deltaplanes. Such a system is also considered to be very ambitious in the international context, but Switzerland thinks that it can develop it on its own.
Like a mirage taste
Drones delivered need an “escort” of planes or helicopters during test flights in uncontrolled airspace and during the day. At Armasuisse, we remain confident in the fact that the DAA will be operational by 2029, but in the end, this reveals a well -known problem: the Swiss Finish.
60 years ago, the costs had already exploded during the acquisition of the mirage.Image: KEYSTONE
-Switzerland tends to “seal” acquisitions – and not only in the military field – by formulating specific wishes. It is not uncommon for this to cause delays and additional costs. This was already shown by the Mirage case in the 1960s: Switzerland’s “extravagance” had led to massive additional costs when buying the French fighting aircraft.
“Stop Helvetisation”
Finally, it seems that mentalities are evolving. “We have to stop sealing and buying at raised foot,” proclaimed Urs Loher in front of the media. This applies to all acquisitions, confirmed the arms chief in response to a question from Watson. He cited as an example the “European Sky Shield” initiative, to which Switzerland joined last year.
Switzerland should take advantage of the common purchase of air defense systems throughout Europe. The UDC saw it as a violation of neutrality, but it is ultimately a common sense decision. With the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the demand for defense equipment “exploded”. There is less and less space for special requests.
Special case of computer science
Not all problems can be eliminated. This is shown by delays in IT projects, such as replacing the Florako air surveillance system, which has become obsolete. It must be used longer than expected, because the new SkyView system is long overdue. At the same time, the DDPS lacks specialists capable of using Florako.
Army data on Amazon?
The major project of new army digitization platform (NDP) must allow a standardized data exchange and adapted to needs within the armed forces and the National Security Network (RNS). But this project also experiences delays. Thus, one of the three planned calculation centers is not yet operational.
The “ready -to -use” solutions are not without side effects, especially in the digital field, as explained by the project manager Luca Antoniolli in front of the media:
“Do we want to keep our data abroad, at Amazon or Microsoft?”
The taboo of the militia army
But in most areas, it is wise to give up Swiss Finish and We must give up another very Swiss particularity: the tendency to perfectionism. “We are waiting for everything to work perfectly,” according to Urs Loher. But in Israel, we cannot afford it. There, you have to take what you can get.
Is the Swiss militia army up to the complexity of current systems?Image: KEYSTONE
The real crucial point is a question that was only touched during the meeting with the press on Wednesday: the Swiss militia army is really able to use increasingly complex systems, and not Only in the computer field? It is almost a taboo, since it is a fundamental principle of our country.
We can only partially hold Viola Amherd responsible for current problems. The acquisition of Israeli drones was decided by its predecessor Ueli Maurer. But the reset of the army, pushed by the right, is in many ways a challenge that his successor will have to manage.
Translated from German
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