Almost a quarter million troops keep their combat weapons at home.
Tens of thousands of Swiss soldiers and airmen recently completed field maneuvers in a future scenario of an economically fractured French Republic saw a breakaway nation invaded the west of the Swiss Confederation, as reported by the English-language French news portal The Local and The Telegraph (of London, England) on Sept. 30, 2013.
Western Switzerland, home of the 2d Infantry Brigade, the 1st Armored Brigade and the 10th Mountain Brigade, went through their paces of repelling an invasion from the futuristic nation of Saônia, the current French Jura region, during Operation Duplex-Barbara.
Envisioning a financially collapsed France in the none-too-distant future, the anticipated Free Dijon Brigade (Brigade Libre de Dijon) invades Switzerland in a three-pronged attack along the border, hitting the Swiss cities of Neuchâtel, Lausanne and Geneva.
According to the Swiss Armed Forces war games scenario, the cash strapped nation of Saônia invades the western cantons to retrieve “the money that Switzerland had stolen from Saônia.”
Not The First Time…
The Swiss military recently conducted a nation-wide military exercise Operation Stabilo Due, in which the possible collapse of the Euro Zone financial system foresaw not only warring factions within former present-day nations threatening Switzerland, but a flood of refugees from Greece, Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal attempting to forcibly gain entry into the country.
Not having been invaded in almost two centuries, any potential enemy would have rough going invading the mountainous nation, as the old Swiss adage goes: Switzerland doesn’t have an army. Switzerland is an army.
Under long-standing Swiss law, at a minimum, all able-bodied men at age 19 have to undergo five months of military training, followed by reserve duty of several weeks over the next ten years.
The Swiss military system also stipulates that the almost quarter million active and reserve troops keep their own personal equipment, to include all personally assigned combat weapons, at home.
