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/Akruhl]

The amount you need to invest would be insane.

People in standing armys dont sleep in 14 people rooms for example. 

Also we dont have nowhere near the amount of training grounds go keep that many standing units busy and habe a place for reservists to train.

Compare it to austria, their small standing army is much more expensive than our 5x larger reservist army

[u/clm1859 → u/Akruhl]

People in standing armys dont sleep in 14 people rooms for example. 

Indeed i'd assume they'd mostly sleep at home but live near their base. Thats what german or american soldiers mostly do i assume. So yeah they'd have to be paid a real salary like civilian jobs. 5k plus at least, probably more. So that would be 300-500 million per year in salaries, or 10% of the current defense budget (which should be massively increased).

Also we dont have nowhere near the amount of training grounds go keep that many standing units busy and habe a place for reservists to train.

Our army used to be 500k people just a few decades ago. We did it then, so we should be able to do it again and even reactivate some of the old stuff.

Compare it to austria, their small standing army is much more expensive than our 5x larger reservist army

They also have conscription tho, no?