Air Force To Decommission Patrouille Suisse Jets At The End Of 2027

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The defence ministry wants to cease operation of the F-5 Tiger aircraft at the end of 2027. Air Force Major General Peter Merz told SRF radio that the jets would thus no longer be available to the Patrouille Suisse PC-7 Team.

This content was published on March 15, 2024 - 11:43 2 minutes Keystone-SDA

• 中文 zh 瑞士空军将于2027年底让巡逻兵飞行表演队飞机退役 Read more: 瑞士空军将于2027年底让巡逻兵飞行表演队飞机退役

“It is the intention of the defence ministry to discontinue F-5 Tiger operations at the end of 2027,” said Major General Merz on Swiss public television, SRF, on Friday. Due to the current financial situation, the army is prioritising its funds for new equipment.

This would mean the end of the Patrouille Suisse aerobatic squadron in its current form.“Patrouille Suisse will no longer be able to fly on jet aircraft if the Tiger is gone,” said Merz.

+After aerobatic display collision, Patrouille Suisse flies again

What future air shows would look like is not yet clear. Swiss defence minister Viola Amherd is currently discussing this with the security commissions, Merz said. One possible option is to deploy the existing PC-7 team on propeller aircraft.

Ultimately, the decision as to whether the F-5 Tigers remain on the ground lies with parliament. Critical voices have already been raised, as presented on SRF.

Procured in the 1970s

The Federal Council had already proposed to Parliament in 2018 that half of the 53 F5-Tigers in service at the time be decommissioned. The remaining 26 aircraft continued to be used to relieve the F/A-18 Hornet with secondary tasks and for Patrouille Suisse.

+Air Force flies with sustainable fuel for the first time

The Tiger fighter planes with a speed of 1,700 kilometres per hour, a length of just under 15 metres and a wingspan of eight metres, have been in service in Switzerland since 1978. Their production was discontinued in 1989 following the delivery of the 3,806th aircraft after more than 30 years.

Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/amva

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here , and if you have feedback on this news story please write to ... .

External Content Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

Email

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

I consent to the use of my data for the SWI swissinfo newsletter.

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at ... .

MENAFN24032024000210011054ID1108014657