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(Bloomberg) — Switzerland’s army chief said the country is fast-tracking the purchase of anti-drone systems as incursions mount over civilian and military infrastructure.
Rising intrusions means the Swiss have been buying “systems as quickly as possible to protect the army against drones,” Lieutenant General Benedikt Roos said on the sidelines of the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken.
The security landscape has changed with the increased use of hybrid warfare, according to Roos, who’s been at the helm of the Swiss armed forces since Jan. 1. The Swiss anti-drone systems will face their first live test in mid-June as part of security arrangements for the Group of Seven summit in Evian, the French town just across the border from Switzerland, Roos said.
Drone defenses have been an increasingly high priority across Europe, as Russian weapons have violated nations’ airspace repeatedly since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Last month, a Russian drone injured several people when it crashed into a residential building in Romania, while European Union President Ursula van der Leyen has called for member states to develop a defensive “drone wall.”
