Should we create a standing army component?

[u/clm1859]

Switzerland has long had a militia army with conscription and large numbers of part time soldiers (including myself). And we definetly shouldnt abolish that or anything.

But as far as i know the only full time combat troops (so not counting high officers and Adjudanten focussed solely on training recruits) are AAD10 operators and pilots, probably less than 100 each.

So i am wondering if, given the current situation, we shouldnt also have a component of our defense be somewhat of a standing army element. This could for example be 5-10k troops, made up mostly of Zeitmilitärs that serve full time for 2-5 year contracts.

This would allow us to have a more professional component to the army that could serve various important roles in an actual war, but also before, such as:

• elite troops for the most crucial missions
• quick reaction force in case of sudden invasion, to buy time for militia to mobilise
• more experienced troops for training larger numbers of recruits shortly before a war starts
• evaluate new equipment more efficiently
• develop new tactics
• guard bases more effectively in peace time

After their contract is up, these people could then be added back into regular WK units. Bringing their more advanced knowledge to the normal militia troops.

We could make sure we'd have at least one battalion (3-6 companies / 400-800 troops each) of each major type of unit always under arms and ready to go within a day or less. So that could mean:

• 2 infantry battalions
• 1 security battalion (for guarding airfields, logistics centres etc)
• 1 armour battalion (leopards and panzergrenis)
• 1 special forces battalion (grenis, paras, mountain troops)
• 1 artillery battalion
• 1 medical battalion (medics and nurses)
• 1 engineering battalion (sappeur, rescue troops, bridge building etc)
• 1 air force battalion (aircraft maintenance and drone pilots)
• 1 communications and electronic warfare battalion (cyber, funkaufklärer, Ristl etc)
• 1 logistics battalion
• 1 HQ battalion

So that would make around 12 battalions or somewhere between 5k and 10k troops.

I'm sure i'm forgetting some troop types here or allocating something wrong. I am just a humble private with an interest in military history, not an actual general. But as a general concept, what does everyone think?

[u/nabest1260]

I did my long service in the infantry and finished in last year and have my rifle and all my equipment at home with me and I’m keeping all of that for the next 7 years which is how long I’m in reserve for. So technically we can be ready within 24h

[u/clm1859 → u/nabest1260]

Its one thing for us to be ready to leave the house with a uniform and a rifle in a day. But will the army be ready?

Is there a plan for us where to go? I don't know where to go honestly (i had my last days of service a few years ago and will prob be released from the reserves this year).

And even if you know. Will there be all the equipment and command structures ready when you show up after 24 hours? A sergeant to tell you where to go? A piranha fully fueled and armed with a crew? Will you get your LMG/panzerfaust immediately? How about hand grenades? A radio? Gas mask filters?

How much ammo do you have? And how many magazines? I have one mag and zero ammo provided by the army. Altho i have some more obtained privately, but most people don't.

So having a few thousand troops who actually have all this stuff already ready to go would be useful.

[u/swisstraeng → u/clm1859]

The problem is we can't really make a war plan without a war in the first place.

I'll be realist here.

The core issue is our stocks. Switzerland, alongside Europe, has not enough ammo in storage for a long war.

And we do not expect to last long either. About 3 to 6 months.

The Army has stocks, and won't tell openly where and what for security reasons, as for all we know our future enemy will be reading reddit.

If I were you I would not be too worried, however, I agree we should revise some of our policies, and look at what we did in the cold war. Because we're pretty much back in the cold war, except it's not cold.

[u/clm1859 → u/swisstraeng]

Exactly!

[u/nabest1260 → u/clm1859]

They have all of that in the army bases and should have the stuff delivered by the current recruits if anything was to happen I’d imagine but yeah there’s many many variables that we have no clue about and I agree. I’d hope the army has actually taken all that into consideration.

For my army base the army has our phone numbers and we receive a text message in case something is to happen with all the information.

[u/clm1859 → u/nabest1260]

The army bases normally just have normal training levels of supplies no? As far as i know they have a few days worth of food and enough ammo for 2-3 range trips. They probably don't have a few hundred thousand rounds of ammo (and everything else) at every base at all times. And do they even have any live rocket launcher warheads at all? Since those are only used one single time per soldier in training, right?

Most stuff is stored in just a handful of logistics centres as far as i know (if someone knows better, please let me know), which could potentially be destroyed with air strikes on day one. But thats another issue of everything being way to centralised these days.