Swiss Air Force

[Larryp]

Apparently no Swiss Air Force jets were scambled during the recent Ethiopian Airlines hijacking because the emergency happened outside Swiss Air Force business hours.
A spokesman said the Swiss air force is only available during business hours-from 8.00am until noon, and from 1.30pm until 5.00pm, and is closed at night and on weekends!

[Astro_Bot]

Actually, that's not much different to the RAAF! ;)

It was my constant prayer while still wearing a uniform - please, Lord, don't let anyone attack on weekends and public holidays .... :)

[gary]

http://youtu.be/CNo8ld7ak8w

[AG Hybrid]

Why does Switzerland need any militarized air force anyway? If I'm not mistaken they have been neutral in every major and minor conflict since at least the turn of the 20th century?

[Ric]

This is useful knowledge.

I shall now plan my quest for world wide domination to start at 5:01pm on a Friday, that will give me a good headstart. :lol: :evil:

[Geoff45]

Basically they ensure their neutrality by being armed to the teeth. The vast majority of Swiss men of military age are in the militia and have a gun in the house.
See here http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

[AG Hybrid]

If I'm also not mistaken. All men do military service - like full on combat training at some point too? Quite similar to Singapore and South Korea.

[astroron]

Brilliant,just brilliant. :lol:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Dennis]

LOL! But what about the Swiss Army Knife and those fine Swiss watches...:lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[PeterM]

Like their cheese their defense is full of holes.

[AG Hybrid]

Nice.

[mithrandir]

Well their air force makes use of lots of holes. They park the aircraft in caves cut into the walls of the valleys and the associated runway goes down the valley floor. There are taxiways across many roads for the planes to cross from their cave to the runway.

[barx1963]

Actually Switzerland has a long and interesting military history. At present the Swiss militia potentially represents the largest armed forces of any country in the world on a per capita basis outside Israel.
For much of their history since independence from the Holy Roman Empire, Swiss mercenaries were a major export of the country with many countries employing them. In Lucerne there is a stunning sculpture of a wounded lion that commemorates the Swiss soldiers who died protecting the Royal family of France during the French revolution.
The fact that they haven't been invaded for centuries (unlike all other European nations) suggest that a combination of strong armed neutrality and being a useful neutral ground for various activities is not a bad policy.

Malcolm

[multiweb]

:question: You'd think they'd be financially minded and buy a couple of F-35 that can do vertical take off rather than digging the joint all over the place. How about that Navy submarine in Lac Leman? Going anywhere? :lol:

[Geoff45]

Bit harder to mount a stealth attack on an aircraft in a hole than one in the open.

[ianB]

Its actually a misconception to think that Switzerland was totally neutral and was never engaged in any fighting during WW2, most history books make this error.
Germany did in fact start to invade switzerland, albeit on a very small scale, and a few lives were lost, but due to an urgent need for additional forces elsewhere the germans pulled out with the intention of returning at a later date'........which did not happen.
Meanwhile tgey saw how they could leaave switzerland alone and use the country to their advantage.
Switzerland also engaged in fighting the germans on a handful of occassions.
At a later date the swiss actually cooperated with the germans, allowing them to transport, by rail, weapons etc, the swiss also continued to trade with the germans by allowing the germans to use swiss banks as a means to finance the war.
About 6 months ago insaw a good doco, maybe on the 'World at war' series?
They explained it very well in good detail, dates, official papers interviews and footage of certain events, very interesting.

[barx1963]

F35 are only vertical landing in one of the 3 variants, and STOL in that variant. The other version are normal take off and landing and the carrier variant.

Malcolm

[multiweb]

nah.... nothing that a couple of strong springs won't fix. :P