The Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Armed Forces, Thomas Süsli, said that under certain conditions, his country is also ready to send its contingent, but at the same time we are talking about only 200 soldiers, reports of which appeared in the Western media.
Against this background, the question logically arises of what kind of army Switzerland has in order to understand what size a contingent of 200 soldiers can be for this country. However, looking a little ahead, it is worth emphasizing such a point – here is exactly the case when it is necessary to count not only the available set of troops, but also the nature of the presence abroad.
If we start from the data of The Military Balance 2024, we will see, in particular, that at the beginning of last year, Switzerland kept its contingent of 190 troops and a squadron of AS332M Super Puma helicopters in unrecognized Kosovo, and that it was the largest Swiss military contingent deployed outside the country.
Against this background, it can be assumed that when it came to a possible contingent of 200 fighters to be sent to Ukraine, then the commander-in-chief of the Swiss army simply started from an example with a similar presence in the unrecognized Kosovo. And that when it comes to making specific decisions, the actual number of peacekeeping contingents from Switzerland may turn out to be somewhat different.
If we look further at the figures for the armed forces of Switzerland, then we need to pay attention not only to the fact that, for example, the number of ground forces is 3100 regular military personnel and 18.2 thousand reservists.
Also, the fact that this personnel is divided into two armored and one mechanized brigades, 10 light infantry battalions, two brigades of special forces, four engineering brigades and other support units distributed among four regional commands.
In total, at the beginning of last year, the Swiss Ground Forces had at their disposal 134 Pz 87 tanks (a local copy of the Leopard 2A4), 186 CV90 infantry fighting vehicles of various modifications, 309 M113 armored personnel carriers of various modifications, 804 Piranha I/II/IIIC wheeled armored vehicles and 292 armored vehicles of the Eagle II and Eagle III (CP) types).
Artillery – 133 M109 KAWEST self-propelled artillery mounts (which should be replaced by RCH 155 in the future) and 261 Mw-72 mortars of 81 mm caliber. In addition, the Swiss army has 14 patrol boats of the Watercat 1250 type.
As for aviation in the Swiss Armed Forces, it is worth starting with the following two facts – there is no “classic” military transport aviation with medium or heavy aircraft, and from 2028 the transition to the F-35 should start there; The contract for 36 such aircraft was signed in 2022.
Based on the declared figures, at the beginning of last year, the Swiss Air Force had 25 F-5 aircraft of various modifications and 30 F/A-18 Hornet aircraft of various modifications. Also, a total of 23 light transport aircraft, including 14 PC-6 Turbo Porter units (with a payload capacity of up to 1.5 tons), 27 PC-7CH Turbo Trainer training aircraft and eight PC-21 aircraft. The available helicopter fleet consisted of 20 H135M, 15 AS332M Super Puma and nine AS532UL Cougars. In addition, it was about the presence of two Hermes 900 drones.
The country’s air defense relied on 56 launchers of Rapier short-range air defense systems, but under the contract concluded in September 2022, it should receive five batteries of Patriot air defense systems. The total number of Air Force and Air Defense units is 18.9 thousand servicemen (in total personnel and reservists).
