- Maintaining air sovereignty, providing air policing (analogous to road traffic police) and ensuring air defence capability.
- Providing air transport services.
- Gathering intelligence for military and political authorities. (After the MIRAGE IIIRS was decommissioned, the ADS 95 UAV reconnaissance system remained the only asset for the Air Force to carry out air reconnaissance missions).
Security and tasks
What should the Air Force be prepared for?
Switzerland is not under any military threat in the conventional sense. It takes years for a threatening situation to develop. Considering, however, that restructuring the Air Force would take a considerable time, we must maintain our know-how to put it into operation should the need arise.
- FLORAKO
The following missions will remain permanent Air Force tasks:
What could happen tomorrow?
- International armed conflicts with the danger of frontier violations
- A proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and medium-range ballistic missiles amongst countries and non-governmental groupings.
- International terrorism and the resulting violent extremism
- The impairment or destruction of communication facilities, e.g. by the targeted release of viruses.
- Super Puma
According to the Government, what should a wider security concept entail?
- Rescue and damage repair as part of relief operations in the event of natural disasters and man-made catastrophes, including salvage missions, fire fighting, air transportation (avalanche, storm damage and other disaster relief), aerial reconnaissance (missing person search parties, infra-red detection of forest fire sites.).
- The intensification of Swiss involvement in relief missions to crisis areas. As member of international organizations such as the UN or OSCE, Switzerland can contribute to the improvement of its own national security.
