The jets of the Swiss Air Force will again take off and land on the motorways as they did during the Cold War. This emerges from a speech by the Air Force Commander Peter Merz, which is reported today in Switzerland at the weekend. In Bottighofen, Merz spoke of the need to rebuild the Bundeswehr’s lost know-how, of the most modern combat aircraft in the world, the F-35, of drones and of the war in Ukraine, which led to a conflict, an afterthought even in the Swiss Army. “Do any of you remember fighter pilots occasionally taking off and landing on freeways?” asked the two-star general. “We intend to do it again. Our goal is to be able to take off and land aircraft from former military airfields or motorways again as soon as possible,” the commander assured.
At the end of the 1950s, the Swiss parliament approved twenty military airfields and several temporary runways on the motorways where fighter planes could take off and land. The autobahns were built exactly in a straight line on sections of around two kilometers and equipped with easy-to-remove central crash barriers. The greening in the middle was also omitted. The motorway sections were in Münsingen (BE), Oensingen (SO), Alpnach (OW), Lodrino (TI), Sion (VS), Flums (SG) and Payerne (VD). During exercises, these locations could become airfields in less than six hours. The freeway was reopened two hours after the last aircraft took off.
The military had to relearn this procedure – militarily called “Meccano”, explained Merz. To this end, it envisages the creation of mobile aviation units capable of converting a highway into a runway, as well as operating and monitoring it. The last operational exercise took place in 1991. Today, the typical features of motorway replacement airfields, such as easily removable crash barriers made of steel cables, have largely disappeared. There is a nationwide search for facilities that can be converted into temporary military airfields within a short period of time. The location of the replacement airfields was not disclosed and would only be activated in case of defense. From a structural point of view, only minimal temporary changes should be made. After more than a year of war between Russia and Ukraine, neutral Switzerland is also preparing for the worst.