How far the Swiss stubbornness not to help “militarily” kyiv, even indirectly, will she go? Since the beginning of the war, Switzerland has irritated its European partners by prohibiting them from transferring to the Ukrainian army ammunition that it has sold to them. Germany (twice), Spain and Denmark have borne the brunt of this inflexibility. A new stage in the non-cooperation strategy of the Swiss Confederation was reached on Sunday March 12, with the discovery, by the Sunday newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, the scrapping by the Swiss army of a whole arsenal that is certainly a little dated, but still usable and efficient.
This will soon get rid of 60 surface-to-air defense systems “Rapier” (in French rapière, long and fine sword), an anti-aircraft battery developed by British Aircraft Corporation in the 1960s on behalf of the British army and of the Royal Air Force. Entering service in 1971, the Rapier served on the front lines for the first time during the Falklands War. Bern had acquired 60 units in 1980 (1.7 billion Swiss francs at the time), modernized several times until recently, before being decommissioned and declared unfit for service at the end of last year. “A first installment of the Rapier weapon system has already been disassembled. Three more will follow.confirms Kaj-Gunnar Sievert, spokesperson for Armasuisse, the Federal Armaments Office of the Ministry of Defense in Bern.
“These missiles are certainly old, but they are not completely obsolete either”explains Peter Schneider, former director of the Swiss military journalrecalling that the British protected the London Olympics in 2012 with Rapier batteries. “So they could very well be used even today against deep flying targets such as drones and helicopters, and even combat aircraft. » However, they will never be used to protect the Ukrainian sky, which causes the consternation of several Swiss deputies. “It is absurd that we are scrapping defense weapons that are still functioning in Switzerland”explains the Green-Liberal National Councilor François Pointet, according to whom the Rapier, a weapon of British manufacture and not Swiss, escapes the law on the prohibition of the export of Swiss military equipment to conflict zones.
Emotion
According to a rule set by the government itself in 2006, foreign systems that the army no longer needs must be resold in priority to the producing country, “without conditions”. In other words, Switzerland would not be in a position to demand a ban on re-export as it has been doing for a year, for example for ammunition for German Gepard tanks. So why didn’t you suggest that London take over this material?
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