| |
|
|
|
Swiss Air Force Fighters
Dirk Jan de Ridder visited the annual Wiederholungskurs at Sion, and reviews the current fighter capability of the Swiss Air Force.
The Swiss Air Force (Schweizer Luftwaffe) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces. It was established on July 31 1914, but did not become a separate service until 1936. Some of the main tasks carried out by the Swiss Air Force are maintaining air sovereignty, providing air policing and ensuring air defence capability.
The primary front-line air defence fleet consists of 33 F/A-18 Hornets and 54 remaining F-5 Tigers. The Hornets are devided under Fliegerstaffel (FlSt) 11, 17 and 18. Originally 34 were bought, one of the dual seat F/A-18D's crashed however, shortly after delivery in April 1998. Several Tigers have already been sold to the US Navy and leased to the Austrian Air Force. Of the 110 F-5 Tigers they bought only 54 remain operational with the Patrouille Suisse, FlSt 8 and FlSt 19. The Swiss Air Force intends to begin retirement of the F-5 in 2013. Favourite candidates for the replacement are the French Rafale and Swedish Gripen, although the Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing's Super Hornet are also still in the race.
At the end of the seventies, the retirement of the Venom and increasing use of the Hunter for air-to-ground attack caused a gap in the field of area air-defence which was to be closed with the Northrop F-5E Tiger. In 1976 the parliament decided on the procurement of 72 F-5 Tiger aircraft, 66 F-5E single seaters and 6 F-5F double seaters. The parts and assemblies were manufactured in the USA, but RUAG (the Swiss federal aircraft factory) carried out the final assembly at Emmen. In 1981 the parliament decided to reinforce the fleet with 38 additional aircraft, of which 6 F-5F double seaters. This acquisition was concluded in the year 1984.
The reliable Tiger aircraft is especially well suited for the Swiss militia system. Militia pilots are flying commercial airplanes as a profession but they also regularly fly military jets to train their skills. Once a year each militia squadron organizes a large three-week Wiederholungskurs (repetition course) at the units wartime base. The complexity of flying the Hornet doesn't allow the aircraft to be flown by militia pilots. Therefore the system with militia pilots and wartime bases is slowly fading away. Only two F-5 squadrons (FlSt 8 and 19) still operate militia pilots and during exercises only Hornets from Fliegerstaffel 18 operate from a wartime base, which is Sion.
The double seater type F-5F is primarily used for conversion training and control flights. Aerial combat missions are mainly flown with the single seater F-5E aircraft, limiting their weaponry to guns and infrared missiles. Despite the fact that, compared to modern fighter aircraft, their engagement possibilities in aerial combat might be limited, the Tiger aircraft serves well in area air-defence.
The workhorse of the Swiss Air Force fighter fleet is the F/A-18 Hornet. With a total length of 17 meters and a wingspan of 12 meters it is considerably larger than the F-5 Tiger. The Swiss F/A-18 version weighs 17 tons, approximately two and a half times as much as the Tiger. Two engines provide for a thrust of 16 tons, which is three and a half times as much as the engines of the F-5. Five thousand liters of fuel allow flights of more than one hour duration. It can easily load 7 tons, about twice as much as the Tiger is able to carry.
From October 1996 the Hornets left the assembly bays at Emmen. By the end of 1999 the delivery was finished. FlSt 17 was the first frontline unit to convert to the Hornet from June 1997, followed in Spring 1998 by FlSt 18. The last squadron to retrain to the Hornet was Dübendorf based FlSt 11 in 1999. As part of the defence cuts and reorganization of the Swiss Air Force Fliegerstaffel 11 moved from Dübendorf to its former wartime base Meiringen in 2006. Dübendorf will be closed in the near future.
The main factor for the Swiss Air Force to choose the F/A-18 Hornet was the top performance of this aircraft. The Hornet has a very short reaction time from its alert position, very good performance and flying characteristics. It is able to accelerate extremely fast, reaching supersonic speed in flight within seconds. Its extremely good manoeuvrability in curvilinear flight is important in aerial combat with visual flight conditions and is proven to be one of the best worldwide.
Its high performance radar allows the F/A-18 to detect and simultaneously engage multiple low flying targets with its long-range guided missiles, by day and night and in bad weather conditions. The Hornet is also well tested in electronic warfare. The aircraft, developed to operate from aircraft carriers, is very well fitted for mountainous regions and narrow valleys as well as short runways.
The Swiss are extremely satisfied with the Hornets. When the F-5 Tigers will be replaced it would not be a big surprise if the Swiss decide to purchase Super Hornets, instead of taking a European fighter.
Articles and photos published on this website are copyright protected. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
| | |
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)