Alarm information

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The alarm formations (Al Fo) of the Swiss Armed Forces are units that can be quickly mobilized as «means from the very beginning» and are available within a few hours on the orders of the Armed Forces headquarters for protection and surveillance tasks. This included the disaster relief regiment for aid in the interior of the country and for cross-border relief operations.

The new alarm formations created from 1983 for Zurich and Geneva airports (1988) as well as the federal city of Bern were disbanded in 2003 with Army XXI . Today's alarm formations consist of the Military Security (Mil Sich) and the Disaster Aid Standby Association (Kata Hi Ber Vb).

Threats

The attack on an El-Al machine in Kloten prompted the Federal Council in November 1969 to create the legal basis for the existing airport command 414 in Zurich-Kloten. The command of the security battalion consisted of three heavy fusilier companies of the Landsturm with 800 men. When aircraft hijackings occurred in the autumn of 1970, the Federal Council had approved the requests by the cantons of Zurich and Geneva to deploy troops at the two international airports. By the time this troop deployment was canceled in September 1971, 30 battalions had been on active duty in Kloten .

In the 1970s, NATO and the Warsaw Pact increased their airborne potential in order to be able to move entire divisions over long distances within a very short time. The 1973 report by the Federal Council on security policy pointed to the threats posed by a strategic attack. In 1977 the Federal Council instructed Field Army Corps 1 and Field Army Corps 4 to make technical and tactical preparations for this case. In 1983, a warning time of twelve hours was expected before an air landing began.

In the 1980s, the Soviet attack concept was changed to surprising, large-scale airborne operations instead of a nuclear first strike. The civil airport in Kloten and the military airfield in Dübendorf would have been suitable for this with their large take-off and landing capacities, as they were already halfway in the back of the NATO defense and their airports and seaports could be reached quickly from there. Within 24 hours, 20,000 men and 800 armored personnel carriers could have been transported to attack behind the NATO defense. The raids during the Prague Spring in 1968 and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979 were initiated with civilian course machines, which instead of civilian passengers transported elite soldiers to occupy the airports.

NATO signaled that if the Swiss defense fails in the greater Zurich area, it could come under heavy, possibly nuclear fire from NATO. During these years, Kloten Airport was the target of brisk Soviet espionage activity, especially during the alarm exercises, because real war measures were then being exercised. In an industrial building in the approach lane in the Bülach area, an antenna system was discovered as an electronic landing aid that was only compatible with Soviet military transport machines.

Alarm information

The Army 61 alarm formations consisted of airport regiment 4 (Zurich airport), airport battalion 1 (Geneva airport, international organizations) and the Bern alarm formation (federal city and Belpmoos airfield ) with a total of 5,000 militia members. There was also the disaster relief regiment . They were military means that could be deployed within a few hours and were used for rapid mobilization in the event of surprising strategic raids (air operations, airborne operations, etc.) and as advance detection in non-military crises (natural events, plane crashes, etc.) in the interior of the country and for cross-border relief operations.

The Army's 95 alarm formations comprised the Zurich Airport Regiment, parts of Infantry Regiments 14 (Bern) and 3 (Geneva) and Disaster Relief Regiment 1.

Airport Regiment 4

In 1986, Airport Command 414 was renamed Airport Command 4 and in 1987 Airport Regiment 4. The airport regiment 4 was integrated into the field division 6 . The assigned militiamen had to work and live within a 30-minute drive from Kloten Airport. They could be called up at any time by a permanent alarm system with pagers and were ready for action 365 days a year within 2 to 3 hours. They did not have to get their personal weapon and equipment at home first, but it was ready with the corps material in the armory near the airport. In the worst case, the second weapon stored at home would have served to fight through to the point of entry. In 1987 the first two-week instruction course took place. In each of the annual alarm exercises, the troops assumed an emergency, they only found out afterwards whether it was an exercise or already active duty. The entire conscription was done in annual two-week instruction courses, at the age of 35 he was released from conscription. The initial stock of 2500 men was increased to 3400 men with the expansion.

The primary task was to combat air landings in the Kloten / Dübendorf area, to make it impossible for the enemy to use the runways and to respond immediately to any escalation with powerful countermeasures.

The regiment, under the command of Walter Bischofberger, was divided into five battalions (staff battalion 4, three airport battalions 41-43, a light flabby weapons department). Equipment and armament consisted of 42 M113 armored personnel carriers equipped with cannons , nine tank destroyers, 42 PAL (Dragon) , 228 bazookas, 44 6 cm mortars, 24 8.1 cm mortars, 2 12 cm fortress mine launchers, 24 Stinger anti-aircraft weapons and 334 motor vehicles.

In a comparative study with defense concepts of other countries by the American military expert Kevin D. Stringer, that of the airport regiment came off as one of the world's best and cheapest concepts for the protection of civil and military facilities.

  • M113 infantry fighting vehicle

  • PAL Dragon

  • Panzerfaust

  • 6 cm mortar

  • 8.1 cm mortar

Disaster Relief Regiment

The disaster relief regiment, designed as an alarm formation, was a central means of the army in fulfilling the third army mission. Most of them were ready for use within 24 hours. It was used domestically in natural and technical disasters as well as major accidents to provide assistance and support to civil organizations.

In Army 95 there was a disaster relief regiment and several rescue regiments, which were divided into 23 battalions, four of which could be deployed as actual alarm formations.

With Army XXI these were reduced to four battalions. Today's alarm organization consists of the emergency aid company (Kata Hi Ber Vb). The company, made up of soldiers from the rescue and engineering troops, consists of around 150 full-time servants and 50 temporary soldiers. It can set a train (30 emergency services) on the move within four hours and the rest within six hours, using 100 different vehicles.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ordinance on alarm information repealed. In: Federal Administration website. October 29, 2003.
  2. ↑ Hans Rühle , Michael Rühle: Warschaupakt planned a nuclear attack on Western Europe. Plans for a pre-emptive war in the mirror of released Eastern Bloc documents. In: NZZ. September 13, 2008.
  3. ^ A b Walter Bischofberger: Alarm formations using the example of the airport regiment 4. In: Louis Geiger, Franz Betschon: Memories of the Army 61. Huber Verlag, Frauenfeld 2014. ISBN 978-3-7193-1513-9
  4. ↑ Jérôme Estebe: 1995. Une parade militaire déclenche une great castagne. In: Tribune de Genève . November 6, 2015.
  5. ^ Alexandre Czech: Jean-François Duchosal. Un homme hors-du commun. In: Revue Militaire Suisse. Issue 4, Volume 2008 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
  6. ↑ Dieter Krüger , Felix Schneider: The Alps in the Cold War. Historical space, strategy and security policy. Oldenburg Verlag, Munich 2012.
  7. ↑ Kevin D. Stringer: Military Organizations for Homeland Defense and Smaller-Scale Contingencies. A Comparative Approach. Praeger Security International, USA 2006, ISBN 978-0-275-99308-5 .
  8. ^ Albert A. Stahel : Think strategically: Aim - Means - Use in politics, economy and the army. In: Strategic Studies. Volume 14, vdf, university publisher at the ETH, Zurich 1997.
  9. ↑ Disaster Relief Association. Organization. ( Memento of May 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Website of the Federal Administration.