Bot of discord neutrality: Swiss defense industry under pressure

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The Swiss arms industry is extremely nervous. Its neutrality makes the Confederacy a complicated business partner for foreign countries. Just last week, the Netherlands announced that it would no longer source weapons from Switzerland.

And the German armaments group Rheinmetall now prefers Lower Saxony to Altdorf UR. «Rheinmetall respects Switzerland’s neutrality. However, the legal interpretation with regard to export leaves us with limited room for maneuver,” the group explains to SonntagsBlick. “At the moment we do not see existing jobs at risk, but we initially had to put expansion plans for our Swiss branches on the back burner.”

In concrete terms, this means: “New capacities for the production of medium caliber ammunition were not built in Switzerland, but in Germany. Production of ammunition for calibers from 20 to 35 millimeters will start at the Unterlüss (D) site in July 2023 to meet increased demand.”

A project in Brussels is also causing nervousness in Switzerland. €500 million from the EU budget should flow to the arms industry to replenish ammunition stocks. The Spanish presidency of the Council gave its approval on Thursday, formally all member states and the European Parliament still have to agree. The agreement focuses on EU countries and the NATO country Norway. At the request of SonntagsBlick, Brussels confirmed that Switzerland could not benefit from these funds.

Switzerland is practically excluded as a potential supplier. “As a result, the Swiss security and defense technology industry is increasingly losing what is by far its most important market and livelihood,” says Stefan Brupbacher (55). The director of Swissmem sees this as a threat to Switzerland’s security: “Without its own relevant industrial base, the systems of the Swiss army cannot be kept operational. And without cooperation in solidarity with friendly states, Switzerland cannot respond in an emergency. count on their support.”

Source:Blick