Dezentralisation in Alpnach

With Hornet Activity on two unusual airbases (St Stephan and Alpnach) I visited the latter for some action on March 19th, 2026

Decentralisation - Hornets in the Simmental Valley again

In the last few years the Swiss Air Force has invested again to train operations out of regular bases. This Week the Hornets in the Wiederholungskurs Meiringen will fly some days out of the Simmental Valley, on the former base of St. Stephan. 

Alpnach is seeing some action too, but with PC-6/7 and Helicopters.

Have fun - and yes, this picture I've made the last time there ✌

WEF'26 - World Economic Forum 2026, Davos

World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting will take place in Davos from 19 to 23 January 2026. Various measures have been taken at the request of the Graubünden government in order to guarantee security. These include restrtictions on the use of Davos airspace and aerodromes from 16 to 24 January 2026. The Federal Council has tasked the Air Force with maintaining air sovereignty.

Payerne will be main base, Sion first Alternate.

Restricted Airspace

Air traffic over territory of Switzerland and Liechtenstein will be restricted within a radius of 25 nautical miles (about 47 kilometres) from the centre of Davos. Similar restrictions apply to border regions in Austria and Italy. Approaches and departures at aerodromes within the security zone are subject to special rules and procedures which the Air Force has drawn up in cooperation with the Federal Office of Civil Aviation.

Special rules and procedures for flight operations apply to the aerodromes in Bad Ragaz, Balzers and Samedan, which are located within the restricted area (LSR). All flights to and from these aerodromes require prior authorisation from the Air Force.

Aviation includes more than helicopters and winged aircraft; other airspace users will therefore also be subject to restrictions.

The operation of model aircraft, drones and tethered balloons is restricted in an area between Davos Monstein over the Wolfgang Pass into Prättigau to Landquart and the region of Chur from 14 to 24 January 2026. Details are available on the drone map.

Flights with hang-gliders and paragliders are restricted on the 16th and from 19 to 24 January 2026: details are available on the Swiss Hang-gliders association website.

Detailed information can be found in official publications (VFR Manual SUP, NOTAM, DABS; see further information).

Flight schedule Payerne 2026

 

Yes, guests from France whould be a very welcomed thing again - but there are more chances for F35 Fightes in 2026 in preparation of the future flight activity. Who knows ... anyway, you waited a long time for the flight schedule 2026 and here it is 👍

Final Call FlSt 17 - December 09th, 2025

With the new Fighter F-35 there is also a new organisation needed, Swiss Air Force will have only two squadrons in the future.

Fighter Squadron 11 needs its status for the Nato Tiger Association, so it is the Squadrons 17 and 18 wh will be transmorphed in the new Fighter Squadron 35 (equals 17+18).

The day of the dissolution began bright and sunny, until I arrived in Corcelles Village just near the Payerne Base. Fog, Fog and did I say it already ? Fog.

Lucky me I was able to see some movements , other photographers only heard them. Lucky us - the event will be repeated in better conditions next year - if possible.

Flight schedules 2026 - Meiringen and Emmen

The end of the year means always a new schedule too - this year Meiringen and Emmen where the first to publish them 💕

Flight schedule 2026 - Emmen (LSME)

Flight schedule 2026 - Meiringen (LSMM)

YORKNITE 2025 - annual migration of Swiss Air Force's Hornet for Nightflying

 

Like every year in mid-November, our Hornets migrates to the north for regular nightflying exercises above the training areas of the north sea. It began with Sweden and Norge, since a couple of years it's now in the UK Yorkshire area with the RAF Leeming as host.

Helvetic Airlines will be arriving for transportation/logistic purpose with the Embraer E190 HB-AZE as SUI591 today sunday evening to Payerne, scheduled departure tomorrow monday at 0900h Local Time to Leeming.

Some photos from earlier exercises out of my archive

Patrouille Suisse above Autigny - June 27th, 2025

This year there are not many aviation events in my area, but with the withdrawal of the Tiger F-5 Jets in the near future I've taken one of the Patrouille Suisse Displays in my area very serious.

Giron de Jeunesse de la Sarine

Patrouille Suisse will end in 2027, if they will fly further on another aircraft type is not sure yet. No F-18 or F-35 Jet anyway.

Falcon photobombs Falcon

Actually I'm in the international META-boycot (read more at the end of the posting) and saves quite some time online - enjoying more quality readings and of course time to check photos I've made. A quite interesting photobomb I've taken was during the dezentralisation exercise BERDEZA on April 01st, 2025 - an Falcon (bird) photobombs an Falcon (DASSAULT Falcon 900EX of the Federal Gouvernment of Switzerland) photobombs an train ... too good to not to share with you 💖

More pictures of the exercise will follow soon

And now to something completely different ...

Meta, the company behind WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and others), is cancelling fact checking instruments (and more, but for me this is the most important part) and the users are now really hard targeted by the misinformation bubble. Together, we - the users - can show that we want to be respected and be safe from fake news.

Yes, it's quite an adventure and my friends had some trouble to stay connected with me, but it's quite an relaxation to stop watching on the phone all couple of minutes when it beeps. So - join the worldwide protest if you are interested - everybody counts.

Increased Readiness of Swiss Air Force's QRA from 2 to 4 armed Hornets

The Swiss Air Force is testing the logistical and human resources needed for two more Hornets in QRA duty for two weeks.

Media release - Published on 2. May 2025

The army is temporarily testing increased readiness in the air police service

Bern, 02.05.2025 — The Swiss Army is increasing its readiness for air police operations for two weeks. For this period, the Air Force doubles the number of permanently available patrols with F/A-18 fighter aircraft from one to two. The test is intended to provide insights into the human and material resources to strengthen the army's defense capability.

Against the background of the changed security policy environment, the Army is testing permanent take-off and operational readiness within a maximum of 15 minutes with two additional armed F/A-18 fighter aircraft over two weeks. The two patrols should be able to be deployed flexibly; both as independently operating F/A-18 patrols and as double patrols. The test is carried out by Airfield Command 11 from the Payerne military airfield and lasts from Saturday, March 3rd. May to Saturday 17th. May 2025. Its aim is to gain insights into human and material resources with the intention of strengthening the defense capability of the Swiss Army.

Permanently ready for security and sovereignty in Swiss airspace

Since 2021, the Air Force has had two armed fighter jets available for air police service (Quick Reaction Alert QRA) around the clock, seven days a week. In the normal situation, the two armed F/A-18s are mainly used for «hot missions» and «live missions». «Hot missions» are «blue light missions» that are triggered when an aircraft violates Swiss air sovereignty, seriously disregards air traffic rules or is in an emergency situation. «Live Missions» are random checks of foreign state aircraft that are only allowed to fly over Switzerland with a diplomatic clearance (Diplomatic Clearance). The Air Force carries out an average of around 10 «Hot Missions» and around 200 «Live Missions» per year.

Air2030 - Current figures on offset transactions as of end of March 2025

 

With the specified command of PATRIOT Air Defense Systems and LIGHTNING II Combat Aircraft, Switzerland requested some Offset transactions in the amount of CHF 5.27 billion. The first 8 Aircraft will be built by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth (USA), the 28 others in Cameri (I). 4 aircrafts will be final assembled by RUAG in Emmen (project name RIGI).

Press release - Published on 25 April 2025

Current figures on offset transactions as of end of March 2025

Bern, 25.04.2025 — The Offset Register currently comprises seventeen offset obligations in the amount of CHF 5.27 billion, which must be awarded by foreign suppliers to Swiss companies. Of this, offset transactions in the amount of around CHF 2.69 billion have been carried out as at the end of March 2025.

The Register, which is updated on a quarterly basis, currently includes seventeen ongoing offset programmes with a total amount of CHF 5.27 billion. Of this, offset transactions for around CHF 2.69 billion have been carried out up to 31 March 2025. Since the last update of the Offset Register at the end of December 2024, no offset obligations have been terminated.

Project “Partially mobile passive sensors to expand the air picture”

The offset programme “Partially mobile passive sensors to expand the air picture” has been added. This comprises an offset obligation of CHF 10 million. These are mainly direct offsets, although indirect offsets may also be realised. On the part of Swiss industry, RUAG AG and CALAG AG will be involved in the form of direct offset transactions.

Programme Air2030

With the F-35A combat aircraft, the offset fulfilment is at around CHF 845 million at the end of March 2025, which corresponds to around 32% of the offset obligation of Lockheed Martin. With the long-range ground-based air defence system Patriot, offset transactions in the amount of around CHF 410 million have so far been carried out with Swiss companies, which corresponds to around 36% of the offset obligation of the US manufacturer Raytheon. Both offset obligations must be fulfilled by the end of 2034. By then, the following allocation keys must be complied with as far as possible between the regions: 65% of the recognised offset volume is attributable to German-speaking Switzerland, 30% to French-speaking Switzerland and 5% to Italian-speaking Switzerland. The fulfilment and the regional distribution will be continuously monitored by armasuisse and discussed with the supplier.

Banking Register

The Federal Office for Defence Procurement armasuisse updated the Banking Register with the figures at the end of March 2025 in addition to the Offset Register. The Banking Register contains seven ongoing banking agreements in which publication is planned. Foreign providers, the contract duration and the current credit balance are listed in the Banking Register. In addition, the commissioned Swiss companies and the regional distribution are also shown. A banking agreement can be concluded upon the request of a foreign provider if a future offset obligation is likely. It enables foreign providers to fulfil up to 20% of a future offset obligation through indirect offset transactions in Switzerland in advance.

Source 

Basevisit Payerne - Night flights with NVG's

 

Payerne Air Base hosted two guided basevisits for photographers in February/March, 2025. Inscription necessary, and only one date of the two to each person. As exspected the visits where full in a very short time - but your webmaster was successfull for the second date.

The pictures during the day where perfect, weather was sunny, positions where great and quite a lot of activity. But the main party for myself was the nightflight activity from inside the fence at the marshaller area - a rare event for me because of my working times, the luggage to take with me and also a bit the distance. 

Anyway, this day I was travelling without bycicle and had the big gear with me - including stativ, three camera bodies, three lenses and last, but not least, my Night Vision Goggles. Those where used the last few years only on animals, time to test them with Hornets of Steel. And yes - looking good !

Merci à la Base aérienne de Payerne pour cette possibilité 💗

Lockheed-Martin F-35 and this 'kill-switch'

With the new political decision makers in the USA, an old legend came back into the mainstream media...

Is there really an kill-switch in the F-35 Lightning II Combat Aircraft ?

No, but there are really some points or switches someone can mis-use. If he is not afraid of political consequences.

A good article about those problems on The Aviationist

Other articles of interest - listed without system:

- Solving data sovereignty and classified information protection issues with the F-35 ALIS / ODIN system (December 09th, 2021)

- Mit dem Tarnkappenbomber F-35 zu einer geteilten Souveränität mit den USA (June 17th, 2020)

- Norway receives F-35 mission data file from USAF (November 15th, 2017)

- Even After F-35’s TR-3 Software is Approved, Frequent Patches May Be Needed (May 30th, 2024)

- Mission Data System Files for Core Allies: The Norwegian-Italian Reprogramming F-35 Lab (July 15th, 2019)

- Trouble with the F-35’s logistics information system (August 05th, 2020)

- Norwegian F-35 spy on its owner: send sensitive data back to U.S.A. (2019)

- F-35 Logistics System Faces Challenges (March, 2018)

Decentralize the Air Force - Hornets on Berne Belp Airfield

The Swiss Air Force will temporarly use Berne (Belp) Airport for military Jets - from March 31st to April 2nd, 2025. The Hornets will fly in out of Meiringen due an repetition course.

For interested Visitors -  do not miss the testing of the cable landing system on the 1st day, that's something spectacular,

Veröffentlicht am 11. März 2025

Armee trainiert mit Kampfflugzeugen in Bern

Bern, 11.3.2025 - Vom 31. März bis 2. April 2025 startet und landet die Luftwaffe mit Kampfflugzeugen des Typs F/A-18 auf dem Flughafen Bern und betreibt während drei Tagen den militärischen Flugdienst ab Bern-Belp. Damit testet die Armee ihre Fähigkeit, ihre Flugzeuge auch von zivilen Standorten aus zu betreiben.

Der Flugbetrieb erfolgt durch das Flugplatz Kommando 13 in Meiringen, welches diese Übung im Rahmen eines Wiederholungskurses durchführt. Die Übung beinhaltet auch Starts und Landungen mit F/A-18 Kampfflugzeugen am Tag und Abend bis spätestens um 22.00 Uhr. Rund um den Flughafen Bern ist deshalb mit einem erhöhten Flugaufkommen zu rechnen. Die Luftwaffe ist bestrebt, allfällige Auswirkungen auf den zivilen Flugbetrieb so gering wie möglich zu halten

Stärkung der Verteidigungsfähigkeit

Die Übung ist notwendig, da heute alle Mittel der Luftwaffe auf die drei Militärflugplätzen Payerne, Meiringen und Emmen konzentriert sind. Das macht sie für weitreichende, gegnerische Waffensysteme verwundbar. Um dieses Risiko zu minimieren, setzt die Luftwaffe unter anderem auf die Dezentralisierung als passive Luftverteidigungsmassnahme. Die Dezentralisierung beschreibt dabei die Fähigkeit, die Truppe und das Material innert kürzester Zeit im ganzen Land zu verteilen. Die Luftwaffe muss ihre Mittel nach Möglichkeit auch von dezentralen, unter Umständen temporären Standorten aus einsetzen können. Letztmals wurde das am 5. Juni 2024 anlässlich der Übung Alpha Uno auf der A1 in Payerne trainiert.

Adresse für Rückfragen

Nadine Schröder

Leiterin Kommunikation Luftwaffe

+41 58 488 96 99

kommunikation.lw@vtg.admin.ch

Herausgeber

Gruppe Verteidigung

www.vtg.admin.ch

Some pictures of so called decentralisation exercises by me: