[ad_1]
Keystone
Starting Thursday, the Swiss air police will be available 24 hours a day. Thereafter, two armed fighter jets will be ready for action 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a maximum of 15 minutes, as the military announced on Tuesday.
This means that the Air Police Service 24 (LP24) project has been implemented successfully and on schedule. LP24 dates back to a motion by former State Councilor Hans Hess (FDP / OW) in 2009. In it, he called for greater preparation in the air police service, also outside normal working hours.
In 2015, the Air Force was only operational during business hours. LP24 took the first step in 2016: for 50 weeks, two aircraft were available Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm In 2017, this presence was extended to 365 days.
Since early 2019 the jets have been on standby from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and by the end of 2020 they will be expanded to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Blue light operations and spot checks
The two armed aircraft would be used primarily for “hot missions” and “live missions,” according to the announcement. The former are “blue light missions” activated by aircraft that seriously violate Swiss air sovereignty or air traffic regulations.
“Live missions”, on the other hand, are random checks of aircraft from foreign states that can only fly over Switzerland with diplomatic clearance. In 2020, thanks to LP24, 15 of these “hot missions” and 290 “live missions” have been carried out to date.
The main location of the permanent air police service, which in the future will be called “Rapid Reaction Alert (QRA)”, is the Payerne VD military airfield. In special circumstances (eg when the runway is closed at Payerne due to renovation work), air police operations are carried out from Emmen LU or Meiringen BE.
Fleet availability is increased
Since technical personnel, such as aircraft mechanics, are available around the clock due to new duty hours, additional maintenance work could be performed on the F / A-18 fleet outside of normal operating hours, writes the military . Thanks to this synergy, fleet availability is now continually increasing, which in turn benefits Air Force training and operational readiness.
For full expansion by the end of 2020, around 100 additional positions were required in the air force, the armed forces logistics base, and the command support base. The additional costs amount to about 30 million francs a year. This amount consists mainly of personnel costs, air traffic control costs, and operating costs.
Thanks to LP24 and QRA, if necessary, aircraft movements with fighter jets could also occur outside the usual military flight times, if necessary also at supersonic speed, the message says. This is necessary to permanently guarantee security in the airspace and enforce the sovereign rights of Switzerland around the clock. (SDA)
