Just a few days ago Militär Aktuell was able to follow a “road operation exercise” of the Swedish Air Force liveand now the Swiss Air Force also announced corresponding training.
Eight F/A-18 fighter planes are expected to land and take off on the A1 national highway in the canton of Vaud next Wednesday. The army wants to test its ability to “operate aircraft from improvised locations”, according to a recent press release. For this purpose, the affected section of highway between Avenches and Payerne will be closed for a maximum of 36 hours.
On Wednesday, June 5, 2024, #Army F/A-18 fighter jets will take off and land on the #A1 national road in the canton of Vaud. ????The army is publishing more detailed information on this. ➡️ https://t.co/WpiNelo24I [Archivbild] pic.twitter.com/ObWR8Q4mx2
– VBS – DDPS (@vbs_ddps) May 30, 2024
The test is necessary “as all air force resources are now concentrated on the three military airfields of Payerne, Meiringen and Emmen”. This makes them vulnerable to long-range enemy weapons systems. To minimize this risk, the air force relies on decentralization as a passive air defence measure, among other things. Decentralization describes the ability to distribute troops and material throughout the country in the shortest possible time.
“The air force must also be able to deploy its resources from decentralized, possibly temporary locations,” it says. The last landing on a highway by Swiss Army fighter aircraft took place in Ticino in 1991; the Austrian Armed Forces practiced this capability once in 1986.
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