Swiss army
Martin Pfister plans to abandon hermes drones at 300 million
The Minister of Defense ordered to re -examine the acquisition of six Hermes drones, a project that accumulates delays and could be abandoned.
Delay and too expensive military drones: the plan beats the wing.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
- The six hermes 900 drones acquired ten years ago remain non -operational.
- The initial budget of 250 million is now 300 million francs.
- Minister Martin Pfister requires complete revision of the project.
The drone bears the name of Hermès, the winged messenger of the gods of Greek mythology, but this flying machine without pilot has so far brought only bad news to Switzerland. Ten years after their acquisition, the six drones Hermes 900still don’t work properly.
Their final commissioning has been delayed many times. Federal finance control has already examined the project three times and made multiple criticism.
Initially, the project was estimated at 250 million francs with a completion date scheduled for 2019. The official end is now scheduled for the end of 2026, and the certification of the devices will continue until 2029. The costs increased to 298 million francs.
Despite all the problems encountered, the Federal Armament Office armasuisse has always supported the project. But it turns out now that the plans, already modified several times, are once again questioned.
“It will not be possible to hold the drone development calendar until 2026,” said Armament Head, Urs Loher. On June 26, he has met the CEO of the Israeli manufacturer Elbit in Cyprus. He issued strong criticism and finally decided to review his copy.
Problems in 7 DDPS flagship projects
The order comes from higher. The new Minister of Defense, Martin Pfister, does not trust the Hermes drone. He asked Armasuisse to examine the project in detail and to propose alternatives. Abandonment is one of the possible options.
The new Minister of Defense, Martin Pfister, scrutinizes the 17 major DDPS projects.
Nicole Philipp/Tamedia
But the centrist Zugois goes even further. “The Federal Councilor has all major projects analyze as well as, depending on the risks, other projects,” wrote a spokesperson for the Federal Department of Defense, Population and Sports Protection (DDPS). They would be no less than 17 in total.
Many of them are known to be sensitive. L’Purchase of 36 new FU-35 combat aircraft constitutes the most important contract. In June, the US government announced additional costs from 650 million to 1.3 billion francs, despite the assurance of a “fixed price” mentioned by the Swiss party.
In December 2024, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Defense, Viola Amherd, the financial surveillance of the Parliament was extremely concerned about the growing number of armaments in great difficulty. Amount of orders including the Hermes drone: around 17 billion francs.
The money is largely spent
Switzerland has already spent the majority of the 298 million planned for the project to buy aircraft. How to maximize their use? A total judgment of the order would inevitably cause a complaint of complaints.
Several reasons explain why drones do not crisscross the Swiss sky. On the one hand, the manufacturer faces problems. The pandemic slowed growth, while Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 and their consequences have strongly mobilized the resources of the Israeli company.
The Hermes 900 HFE D-11 aircraft, during its presentation to the media at Emmen military square on December 9, 2019. The drone has since returned to Israel.
Georgios kefalas/keystone
On the other hand, Bern expressed specific requests when ordering. Swiss drones were therefore designed with a diesel engine to guarantee longer flight autonomy. In addition, Switzerland has placed for an automated defrosting and detection system. It is a world premiere for a drone of this type. The armament company Pump started to develop a prototype. Until now, the system has not yet been operational. This implies that drones should be escorted by helicopters in the Swiss airspace to prevent accidents, especially with paragliders.
It should be noted that project managers and controllers were overwhelmed by the complexity of the mission and the large number of stakeholders. According to one of the financial control reports, Armasuisse had to send weekly reports to Elbit to report the shortcomings.
In the event of failure, we risk losing a large part of the 300 million invested. The work carried out for several years by many officials is not taken into account.
Translated from German by Emmanuelle Stevan
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