Air 2030 – The new airspace surveillance and flight operations monitoring system was chosen

(Press Release from the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport, unofficial translation by EDR On-Line)

Bern, 19.09.2019 – The evaluation of the three candidates for the new airspace and air operations surveillance system for the Swiss Army has been finalised with the choice of the system. The management of the Air2030 programme has followed the recommendation of the team of experts in favor of the French candidate Thales with the Skyview system. The acquisition will be the subject of a request to Parliament in the 2020 armaments programme.

The “C2Air” project involves the replacement of the Ralus / Lunas subsystems of the Swiss Air Force’s current airspace surveillance and flight operations system. Over the last twelve months, specialists from armasuisse and the Swiss Army have tested three replacement systems from three different countries in Switzerland, evaluated the offers received and made a recommendation to the Air2030 programme management in an evaluation report. The General Director of Armaments has now followed this recommendation and awarded the contract to the French candidate Thales with the Skyview system. Thales was chosen because of its best value for money. In addition, Skyview is the system that proves to best meet the requirements. It is expected that the Federal Council will submit the acquisition of this system to Parliament in the message on Army 2020. The other candidates were Saab (Sweden) and Raytheon (United States). The manufacturer and the system selected do not cause any harm to the other PAC and Bodluv projects of the Air2030 programme.

Airspace Surveillance and Flight Operations System Florako

The Ralus (Radar-Luftlage-System) collects the radar data and establishes the air picture. The Lunas (Luftlage-Nachrichtensystem) reproduces all the data on the screen to support the conduct of the engagement.

These two subsystems are part of the Florako Airspace Surveillance and Flight Operations System. The latter is intended to identify civil and military aerial objects (i.e. airplanes, helicopters and drones) and to conduct Air Force engagements, including ground-to-air defense. Since 2005, the Swiss airspace has been monitored 24 hours a day by the Florako system.

Link with the Air2030 programme

The C2Air project (for Command and Control) is part of the Air2030 programme, as are the next combat aircraft (PAC), long-range surface-defense (Bodluv) and Radar projects. The C2Air and Radar projects are older in time and will be the subject of a request to Parliament in separate armaments programmes.

Pictorial courtesy Thales