The Swiss Air Force successfully carried out landings and departures of fighter jets on a motorway on Wednesday – a manouvre not attempted by the alpine nation for decades but relatively common within NATO.
Departing from the military aerodrome in Payerne, which is situated alongside the section of motorway that had been temporarily closed for the exercise, the first F/A-18 bomber jet touched down around 10:00 without a hitch. Launches two hours later proceeded equally smoothly.
After the initial landing, the runway condition was checked. An empty F/A-18 weighs about fifteen tonnes, and landing it imposes a considerable impact. Rocks or moderate-sized debris can cause significant damage to jet engine turbines.
At 25 metres wide, a four-lane motorway such as the A1 is narrower than a typical runway, necessitating the removal of the safety rails from the central reservation.
Three other aircraft of the same type subsequently landed on this motorway, which runs across the country from the western French border near Geneva to the Austrian border in the east.
Operations resumed in the afternoon with another round of landings and take-offs.
The Swiss Air Force conducted this “Alpha Uno” exercise to confirm its ability to operate under conflict or base damage conditions.
The Air Force currently operates around thirty F/A-18s which are nearing the end of their service life.
To replace the F/A-18 fleet, the Swiss government has selected the American F-35, a state of the art stealth multirole fighter which was preferred to the French Rafale aircraft. However, the decision caused a chill in Paris-Berne relations, which only warmed up following a state visit by President Emmanuel Macron last year.
Tweet translation: Today the Air Force is taking off and landing its F/A-18 fighter jets on the A1 motorway near Payerne. The purpose of the test is to strengthen the army's defence capability by means of so-called decentralisation.
Switzerland will buy 36 F-35As at a cost of approximately 6 billion Swiss francs (about the same amount in euros). Lockheed-Martin deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2027 and continue until 2030.
Despite being touted by the Swiss government as the top option at the lowest cost of the contract contenders (Rafale, F/A-18, and Eurofighter), the F-35 programme’s countless technical difficulties and budget overruns in the U.S. prompted two Swiss parliamentary commissions to investigate the aircraft choice, although the results did not fundamentally challenge the selection.
