{"id":2255,"date":"2014-09-12T15:12:05","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T15:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2018-11-15T16:17:39","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T15:17:39","slug":"hidden-swiss-air-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/","title":{"rendered":"The hidden Air Force"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switzerland is a weird country.
\nA few examples? In the case of nuclear war, the Swiss have bunkers capable of fitting more than 100% of the country’s population – it is the only (paranoid enough) country to be capable of doing that.
\nSwiss highways can be converted into runways by quickly removing the grade separations in between the lanes. Switzerland\u00a0also has ad-hoc airbases with hangars carved out of the mountains.
\nAnd the Swiss Air Force has office hours – yes, office hours. So despite all the “heavy armour” around – just invade\u00a0at night time and Swiss Air Force pilots are in bed. And due to the noise level which could hurt important Alpine tourist region – Swiss pilots have to go abroad to fly supersonic (and are not flying at all in the mountains during tourist season).<\/p>\n

Marshall Eubanks once said:<\/p>\n

I was driving through Switzerland years ago, when I discovered\u00a0a fighter jet taxiing out of a\u00a0mountainside and finally take off on a nearby landing strip.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The giant Swiss militia<\/h2>\n

Switzerland is neutral, but has one of the largest armies on a per capita basis and all militia soldiers take their guns home – one could say Switzerland has an almost\u00a0national paranoia about defence. Where does this come from? Historically, it stems from the fact that Switzerland is\u00a0at the crossroads of important routes through the Alps – critical for any emperor. During\u00a0the Cold War, the Swiss built a giant militia-based national defence system that rivals that of any\u00a0country\u00a0in the world.\u00a0If anyone were to invade Switzerland, they would find a nation armed to the teeth. Switzerland has\u00a0a national building code that requires every home to either have a bunker or pay into a fund to maintain community bunkers – so every Swiss Citizen has quick access to a shelter.<\/p>\n

\"Swiss

Swiss mountain bunker system<\/p><\/div>\n

The Swiss Army maintains a defence network of huge fortified cannon placements – some of them well able to attack an approaching enemy well beyond the Swiss border. Switzerland has countless mountain bunkers – Swiss mountains are like cheese, countless\u00a0holes are drilled inside – one of them being a big bunker with a small train, for the Swiss government. Cannon placements are extremely\u00a0well hidden, and you can imagine it would be a nasty surprise for an invader to be in the firing range of one of those cannons.<\/p>\n

\"Are

Are you sure I’m a rock?<\/p><\/div>\n

The Swiss army also had countless fake rocks, houses or barns that could open a whole wall or split into two, with cannons and\/or nasty machine guns inside. Many of those were given up recently, and even Swiss citizens were surprised how well guarded they were. Also, thousands of Swiss tunnels and bridges, but also highways and railroads are built with tank traps and demolition charges.<\/p>\n

A regular visitor to Switzerland wrote:<\/p>\n

When we used to visit Switzerland we had a game as we drove along or walked the mountain paths – “<\/span>Spot the hidden bunker<\/em>“. The more you looked, the more you saw. Switzerland is riddled with hidden and disguised military installations. What appeared to be a rock face in a lay-by beside the road were actually steel and concrete doors painted like rock. That 4 lane highway actually converts to a runway with the hangar doors hidden in the cliffs beside it. The cute looking little chocolate box mountain chalet you are hiking towards has machine gun slits on closer inspection.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Swiss Air Force<\/h2>\n

The Swiss maintain a small air force. That wasn’t always like that, it once had a huge Vampire and Venom fleet, with only the married pilots having ejection seats. Nowadays, Switzerland has 32 Boeing F\/A-18 Hornets (initially 34) and 54 F-5E Tiger (to be replaced by 2016 – but Switzerland voted against the purchase of Saab JAS-39 Gripen in a popular vote in 2014). By the way – even\u00a0the Swiss\u00a0Air Force pilots where militiamen except the F\/A-18 pilots who are professionals – Most of the militia pilots are Civilian pilots outside the Swiss Air Force, but some of them farmers or butchers.\u00a0While small, the Swiss Air Force is also very\u00a0secretive. Alongside their (countless) mountain air bases are hardened tunnels drilled into the mountains – where the fighter jets\u00a0are being kept. If enemy pilots would be flying overhead, all they would see is taxiways disappearing into the mountains. And there is the rumour that even runways are vanishing in the mountains –\u00a0with only a small part being visible.<\/p>\n

\"Hawker

Hawker Hunter on Highway in Switzerland<\/p><\/div>\n

The Swiss Air Force\u00a0also has highways parts that can be converted into landing\/takeoff runways by quickly removing the grade separations – and from time to time exercises do take place on those parts. Usually, at night time, highways are closed down so the fighter jets could land.<\/p>\n

How the hell do they find their way?<\/h2>\n

Another remarkable thing is how Swiss military pilots managed to fly within the Swiss Alps – without ILS and GPS, of course. And they didn’t just fly at good weather!<\/p>\n

During recent tourist Hawker Hunter flights<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0organized by MiGFlug – the pilot explained the system to an astonished British customer. The customer asked how they managed to not lose orientation in the mountains, as everything looks similar and they are flying at low level through valleys – so it’s hard to have orientation points. The pilot – which was the famous Jetman Yves Rossy, a former military and still active Hunter pilot – explained:<\/p>\n

First of all, as a Swiss pilot, you know the geography extremely well. But when the weather was bad, we were guided from ground stations who told us exactly where to fly, how many degrees to the left, when to go up, when to go down. It was an extreme level of trust as we sometimes didn’t see anything while flying through a narrow valley at low level. A simple system, but it worked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The customer then asked: Well it works for Switzerland, but how\u00a0do Swiss pilots manage the orientation abroad?
\nYves “Jetman” Rossy:<\/p>\n

We do not invade, so why do pilots have to manage\u00a0navigation abroad?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Switzerland is a weird country. A few examples? In the case of nuclear war, the Swiss have bunkers capable of fitting more than 100% of the country’s population – it is the only (paranoid enough) country to be capable of doing that. Swiss highways can be converted into runways by quickly removing the grade separations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[266,405,532,533,534,536],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fighter-flights","category-fighter-jets","tag-hawker-hunter","tag-mountain-bunkers","tag-swiss-air-force","tag-swiss-armed-forces","tag-swiss-army-knife","tag-swiss-mountain-air-base"],"yoast_head":"\nThe hidden Air Force | MiGFlug.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The hidden Air Force | MiGFlug.com Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Switzerland is a weird country. A few examples? In the case of nuclear war, the Swiss have bunkers capable of fitting more than 100% of the country’s population – it is the only (paranoid enough) country to be capable of doing that. Swiss highways can be converted into runways by quickly removing the grade separations […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MiGFlug.com Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-12T15:12:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-11-15T15:17:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philipp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philipp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\u00a0Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/\",\"name\":\"The hidden Air Force | MiGFlug.com Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-12T15:12:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-15T15:17:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#\/schema\/person\/d792d41d5885ff460b5f2e6830edc14a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"Hawker Hunter St. Stephan\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The hidden Air Force\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/\",\"name\":\"MiGFlug.com Blog\",\"description\":\"for those interested in flying military jets and aviation related topics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"de\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#\/schema\/person\/d792d41d5885ff460b5f2e6830edc14a\",\"name\":\"Philipp\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9105f75c8ed22d44575c17c20363ced0d6b4abf07f2039c7e0067f7fdff1f65c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9105f75c8ed22d44575c17c20363ced0d6b4abf07f2039c7e0067f7fdff1f65c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Philipp\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The hidden Air Force | MiGFlug.com Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"The hidden Air Force | MiGFlug.com Blog","og_description":"Switzerland is a weird country. A few examples? In the case of nuclear war, the Swiss have bunkers capable of fitting more than 100% of the country’s population – it is the only (paranoid enough) country to be capable of doing that. Swiss highways can be converted into runways by quickly removing the grade separations […]","og_url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/","og_site_name":"MiGFlug.com Blog","article_published_time":"2014-09-12T15:12:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-11-15T15:17:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philipp","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Philipp","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"5\u00a0Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/","name":"The hidden Air Force | MiGFlug.com Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg","datePublished":"2014-09-12T15:12:05+00:00","dateModified":"2018-11-15T15:17:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#\/schema\/person\/d792d41d5885ff460b5f2e6830edc14a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/09\/Hawker-Hunter-St.-Stephan.jpg","width":600,"height":600,"caption":"Hawker Hunter St. Stephan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/hidden-swiss-air-force\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The hidden Air Force"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/","name":"MiGFlug.com Blog","description":"for those interested in flying military jets and aviation related topics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"de"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#\/schema\/person\/d792d41d5885ff460b5f2e6830edc14a","name":"Philipp","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de","@id":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9105f75c8ed22d44575c17c20363ced0d6b4abf07f2039c7e0067f7fdff1f65c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9105f75c8ed22d44575c17c20363ced0d6b4abf07f2039c7e0067f7fdff1f65c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Philipp"},"url":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}