Air Police Training - diversion to land in Zurich Airport

 

Due training to land on a diversion airport, Swiss Air Force Hornets can be seen on approach exercises to the runways of Zurich airport on Thursday/Friday (March 04/05) and Tuesday (March 09th). There will be no actual landings of the Hornets. Those trainings are regularly at Zurich and Geneva airport.

Payerne closed for runway works, like every summer. June 2nd 'till July 3rd, 2020

Like every year the military airfields in switzerland closes down for some weeks for maintenance works on runway and installations.

The main base Payerne will be closed from June 2nd 'till July 3rd, 2020.

QRA/Air Defence (LPD24) from 0600-2200h LT will be executed out of Meiringen during this time, together with nearly all flights with F-18 Hornet.

Support needed - please help me win a price

unfortunally, this photo contest was cancelled without informations of the F35-Team

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Swiss Air Force Flight Schedule of Emmen and PC-7 Team, 2019

Just for information purposes - I've updated the flight schedule post with the chart of Emmen and the PC-7 Team today ;)

PC-7 Team 2019

21 - 24. Februar	FIS Ski Weltcup Crans-Montana	Crans-Montana
17 - 19. Mai	Fête des musiques Gruériennes	Les Moulins
24 - 25. Mai	Tag der Öffentlichkeit Emmen	Emmen
29. Mai - 01. Jun	Heliweekend Grenchen	Grenchen
29 - 31. Mai	Gewerbe- und Erlebnisausstellung Buochs	Buochs
21 - 22. Juni	Eidgenössisches Turnfest Aarau	Aarau
28 - 29. Juni	15. Flüügerchilbi Beromünster	Beromünster
05 - 07. Juli	Züri Fäscht	Seebecken Zürich
19 - 21. Juli	International Gijon Airshow	Gijon, ESP
26 - 28. Juli	Sunderland Airshow	Sunderland, UK
30 - 31. August	Huntertag St. Stephan	St. Stephan
06 - 07. September	Flüüger-Fäscht Schmerlat	Schmerlat, Schaffhausen
20 - 22. September	Czech Air Force Days	Ostrava, CZ
04 - 05. Oktober	40. Modellflugtag Hausen am Albis	Hausen am Albis
11 - 12. Oktober	Air & Space Days Luzern	Verkehrshaus, Luzern
11 - 12. Dezember	Brevetierung	Vitznau

Swiss Air Force's QRA boost it's capacity in 2019

Today is a new big step in Swiss Air Forces Quick Reaction Alert system called Luftpolizeidienst24 (LPD24) - every day in between 0600-2200LT two armed F/A-18 Hornet aircrafts are ready for takeoff in less than 15 minutes. Full day capacity will be available end of 2020.
For us aviation geeks and photographs interesting is the additional night flights planned on wednesday evening, so two times a week now (normal night flight training monday or tuesday (meteo)).

First Night-mission of the Swiss Air Force QRA

Today very early morning, 0326h local time, two Hornets take off from our main base Payerne LSMP. Another test of the availability and procedures - normally our QRA is not yet ready at this time of the day but 2021:

Press bulletin

Erster Start bei Nacht ist gelungen

Die Einsatzbereitschaft im Luftpolizeidienst wird bis Ende 2020 kontinuierlich ausgebaut. Ab dann werden während 365 Tagen rund um die Uhr zwei bewaffnete Flugzeuge einsatzbereit sein. Im Januar 2017 ist die Bereitschaft auf 365 Tage – also auch an Wochenenden und Feiertagen – von 8.00 bis 18.00 Uhr erweitert worden. Vom 3. bis 4. September 2018 hat die Luftwaffe eine noch längere Bereitschaft im Luftpolizeidienst angeordnet.

Das Projekt Luftpolizeidienst 24 (LP24) hat zum Ziel, die permanente Bereitschaft an 365 Tagen während 24 Stunden bis Ende 2020 zu erreichen. In der aktuellen Phase der Umsetzung ist die normale Bereitschaft von 8.00 bis 18.00 Uhr an 365 Tagen vorgesehen. In der Nacht vom 3. auf den 4. September 2018 wurde jedoch Bereitschaft angeordnet. Zum ersten Mal starteten zwei F/A-18 um 3.30 Uhr.

Ziel dieser Übung ist es, wertvolle Erkenntnisse für die Umsetzung der nächsten Phasen erhöhter Bereitschaft zu gewinnen und so die ersten Lehren aus einem Flugdienst bei Nacht zu ziehen. Ab dem 1. Januar 2019 wird die Bereitschaft des Luftpolizeidienstes auf die Zeiten von 6.00 bis 22.00 Uhr an 365 Tagen erhöht.

Motion aus dem Jahr 2009

Das Projekt LP24 geht auf eine Motion von alt Ständerat Hans Hess (FDP/OW) aus dem Jahr 2009 zurück. Darin forderte er eine erhöhte Bereitschaft im Luftpolizeidienst auch ausserhalb der normalen Arbeitszeiten. Mit LP24 wird nun in vier Schritten eine permanente Einsatzbereitschaft von zwei bewaffneten Kampfjets innert höchstens 15 Minuten erreicht.

Swiss Air Force scrambled for British Airways July 5th

Last thursday, two Swiss Air Force F/A-18 Hornet on QRA duty had to scramble for flight BA610 due missing radio contact of the flight.

Source: http://avherald.com/h?article=4bac50fa&opt=0

Swiss QRA called Luftpolizeidienst24 (LPD24) is based in Emmen this month. The following picture shows the contrails of the 'EYEBALL' visiting the intercepted aircraft - in this case a Portuguese Air Force Falcon Businessjet - and the 'SHOOTER' a few miles behind for cover a few days ago:

Payerne Air Force Base Open Doors, 2018

More then 5000 people from all of Switzerland and abroad - dutch, french and german cars is what I saw - visited the main base due Open Door exposition and Airshow today.
With introduction of all the jobs you can learn and work on an Swiss Air Force Base, the exposition saw many interesting work places.
And there was an little airshow too - Swiss Air Force Hornet Demo Team, Super Puma Display Team and fire/SAR demo was sheduled - Patrouille Suisse visited for an flybye too. The most interesting new demo was an QRA / Air Policy Demonstration of two Hornets versus an (NC)PC-7. Let's hope such a demo is standard in the future ;)

Article in German with other pictures by me ;)

June 21st, 2018: Pope visits Geneva - strenghtened Air Police

Swiss Air Force will reinforce the Air Police LPD24 during the visit in Geneva. The Pope will held a mess with  41'000 places (already sold out). Up to 200 soldiers for medical help and logistics are ready.

Temporary Flight Restrictions 21.06.2018:
- from 0900-2100h LT on the line Geneva Airport–Bogis-Bossey, Radius of 10 nautical miles
- for helicopters and small aircrafts (normal traffic for GVA is permitted)

Link

Restriction zone - http://staysafe.bazl.admin.ch/besuch-papst-franziskus-in-genf-einschraenkungen-des-luftraumesvisite-de-pape-francois-a-geneve-creation-dune-zone-reglementee/

On other international events in the area (G8 summit 2003, Francophonie summit 2010), an participation of the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) and a mixed CAP (Combat Air Patrol) was installed. This is not yet discussed for the pope.

Four of the five temporarely grounded Hornets back in the air again

Four of the five temporarely grounded Hornets are back in the air again. Due the Inboard TEF hinge issue, Swiss Air Force had to stop QRA for some hours end of January, 2018.
Source: Swiss Radio DRS1

More Infos on this Blog:
https://flytogrimmi.blogspot.ch/2018/02/five-hornets-grounded.html
https://flytogrimmi.blogspot.ch/2018/01/hornets-grounded-due-maintanance.html

Some Hornets from Basevisit yesterday - Meiringen

Datalink-Problems with Swiss Military Radar

A F-5 Tiger is intercepting a NATO C-17 Globemaster III (08-0002)

Training flight activity is reduced due datalink-problems (e.a. Link16). During Software and Hardware upgrade of Switzerlands Military Radarsystem (FLORIDA) the datalink was not working correctly last friday and the error is not solved yet. QRA is not concerned.

36 hours of QRA - another long endurance test in Payerne

For testing the operability, Payerne held already the fourth 36h testdrive for the QRA from March 20th 0800h LT 'till 21st 2000h LT, 2018.
Swiss Quick Reaction Alert is called Luftpolizeidienst 24 (LPD24) and put two armed F/A-18 Hornet on permanent 15mins Readiness from 0800h-1800h LT. The Readiness will be increased to 0600-2200h in 2019 and at the end of 2020 it will be permanent 24h/365d.
Payerne is the main base for the QRA, please ignore the 'wrong' picture (taken in Sion) on the official media release: