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The Security Policy Commission of the National Council (SiK-N) welcomes the investigations into the purchase of Leopard 1 tanks that the federal government and RUAG have initiated.
The National Council’s Security Policy Commission (SiK-N) is calling for Ruag, the federal armaments company, to become more transparent. With 14 votes to 4, with 6 abstentions, she spoke out in favor of RUAG providing better information at an early stage in the future – especially when it comes to events of major entrepreneurial and political importance.
SiK-N welcomes the federal government’s external investigation into the background to the tank business. But she already considers “better and earlier information from RUAG to be essential”.
The defense department and RUAG itself launched external investigations on Monday into disagreements over the purchase of 96 Leopard 1 tanks.
Inconsistencies in the Leopard tank deal
In 2016, RUAG bought 96 old Leopard 1 tanks in Italy as spare parts donors. In early 2023, RUAG began purchase negotiations with Rheinmetall, which wanted to supply the tanks to Ukraine. In February, Ruag signed the contract with Rheinmetall – with reservations. However, Ruag only made the official request to the federal government later. The Federal Council rejected the sale for reasons of neutrality.
Defense Minister Viola Amherd told SRF on Monday: “The Federal Council has come to the conclusion that the deal cannot be approved.” The reason for this are newly emerged inconsistencies. According to several sources, Ruag sold 25 of the 96 tanks that the armaments company wanted to sell to Rheinmetall years ago to a German armaments company. However, this did not pick up the tanks.
That’s unprofessional and it’s causing insane reputational damage, including in foreign policy.
Because of this practice, people in the Security Policy Committee of the National Council were amazed, says SP National Councilor Franziska Roth. “People rubbed their eyes in the commission. I’m glad that RUAG is doing the same and is now ordering an investigation itself. Because it’s such a mess that it needs to be dealt with now.”
Above all, the behavior of the Ruag leadership must be examined in depth. According to Roth, this caused a lot of damage. “It’s unprofessional and there’s an insane reputational damage, also in foreign policy.”
Ruag: The facts are being legally examined
“On the one hand, there is an ongoing investigation in this overall context, and on the other hand, the third party has not made any efforts to actually pick up these tanks for more than three years,” says Silvan Gruber, head of communications at RUAG. “This matter is currently being examined in depth from a legal point of view.”
According to Franziska Roth, the Parliament’s Audit Committee should also be interested in the case. This would then be the third investigation.