Short feature on Taskforce Drones: Strengthening defence capacity with Swiss drones
Drones have become indispensable in today’s battlefield. This also changes understanding of modern warfare. For this reason, National Armaments Director Dr Urs Loher, Chief of the Armed Forces Thomas Süssli, Secretary-General Daniel Büchel and Director of the Federal Office for Civil Protection Michaela Schäfer launched the Taskforce Drones in 2024. Its goal – strengthening defence capacity with Swiss drones.
The goal of the Taskforce Drones is to strengthen Switzerland’s defence capacity with Swiss drones. For this purpose, the Swiss Armed Forces are to receive drones quickly for testing, in order to accelerate capacity development. Secondly, drones are to be developed and manufactured in Switzerland as far as possible, to reduce dependencies.
In the short feature, National Armaments Director Dr Urs Loher, Chief of the Armed Forces Thomas Süssli, Head of the Taskforce Drones Dr Thomas Rothacher and Professor of Autonomous Systems at ETH Zurich Dr Roland Siegwart demonstrate the necessity of the Taskforce Drones. Here, they explain the goals and intentions as well as the current status. They also provide insights into current and future challenges that the Taskforce needs to overcome.
The Taskforce Drones with the following email address is available for inquiries: taskforce.drohnen@ar.admin.ch.
Switzerland is often called the Home of Drones. It’s important to me that we can keep the expertise we have in Switzerland. Unfortunately, we already have indications that essential expertise has disappeared to other countries and what’s gone is gone, we will not be able to get it back”.
We have seen clearly that the investments in drone technology have risen significantly worldwide and we need this Taskforce so that we do not fall behind.
We have talked a lot about new eras and now it is reality, we realise that the world will not be the same as it was before.
We have a great deal of knowledge in the field of autonomous systems and can estimate development very accurately.