Army halves take-offs This is why more and more F/A-18 fighter jets remain on the ground

The army's fighter jets were not even in the air half as often in 2024 as in 2023, according to a memo on Meiringen airfield. The reason: repair work at Ruag is being delayed - and has been for years.

Parking in the hangar instead of missions in the air: the Swiss Armed Forces' fighter jets are increasingly being grounded. This is suggested by a memo from the Meiringen military airbase, which has been made available to the "Aargauer Zeitung". According to the document, the number of flight movements has fallen sharply over the past three years.

In absolute figures, this means that while 3739 flight movements with fighter jets were registered in 2022, just one year later there were only 3166. The drop was much more serious last year: only 1412 take-offs and landings of fighter jets were recorded at the airfield in Meiringen.

This corresponds to just over 31 percent of the possible maximum utilization. This is made up of 4500 jet movements with the F/A-18 and a remaining contingent of 500 for the Tiger type. It is not for nothing that the sober conclusion in the memo is that the number of flight movements in 2024 is "very low". The number of take-offs and landings in Payerne also fell from 8,397 to 7,590 between 2022 and 2024.

Fleet availability leaves a lot to be desired

The reason for the sharp decline is reportedly fleet availability. It was actually expected that more jets would be operational. On closer inspection, this fact is surprising: after all, the difficulties with the F/A-18 fighter jets have existed for years - and there seems to be no improvement.

In 2019 - six years ago now - the army admitted that repair work on the aircraft was causing delays. At the time, it said: "The implementation of measures to extend the service life of the fighter jets is being delayed due to technical problems."

A press release from 2019 stated that only ten of the 30 available aircraft were prepared for air operations. Little has changed since then: only twelve jets are still operational.

Politicians complain about poor communication

An army spokeswoman has now admitted to the "Aargauer Zeitung" that the problems have not yet been resolved: "This has led to longer downtimes for individual aircraft, which were then missing from the flight line, which ultimately meant that fewer training flights could be carried out." The Ruag armaments group does not appear to be able to cope with the volume of orders and the maintenance of the fighter jets.

However, it is not just the work processes that are lacking; there is also room for improvement in terms of communication about the shortcomings. "We were not informed that there had been a reduction in training and instruction operations," complains Priska Seiler Graf (SP), Zurich National Councillor and President of the Security Policy Committee.

"You don't hear much anymore"

Only around the decision to purchase new F-35 fighter jets did we receive reliable information: "Now, however, we don't hear much anymore." A sparse note about problems with the oxygen supply in the cockpits "could not be the only reason for the very low number of flight movements", the politician speculated.

At the same time, she speculated that other army programs may also be subject to delays. The army had actually set itself the goal of ensuring a smooth transition with the F/A-18 aircraft until the planned arrival of the F-35 aircraft in 2028 (in Payerne) and 2030 (in Meiringen).