Key facts
With a credit of CHF 298 million, armasuisse is procuring an unmanned and unarmed reconnaissance system on behalf of the Defence Group (Group V). The system comprises six drones tailored to the needs of the Armed Forces, ground components, two simulators and logistics components. According to the SAP financing system, at the time of the audit CHF 288 million were committed, so there is little financial leeway, despite considerable challenges.
The project is in both the execution and the introductory stages: Essentially, the systems are still in development although the project team has performed acceptance tests on some subsystems from the Israeli supplier Elbit. According to the 2015 Armed Forces dispatch, the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) planned to complete the project in 2019. At the time of the audit, the head of project had postponed project completion until the end of 2026, although armasuisse has mooted the prospect of a system which, at that time, will not meet key military requirements. This means that the additionally required escort aircraft will cause operating and maintenance costs to be considerably higher than communicated in the 2015 armament programme. The drones will meet all planned military requirements by 2029 at the earliest. In armasuisse’s view, the cause of the delays lies mainly with the suppliers RUAG and Elbit, the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.