Defence exercise to involve 4,000 troops in western Switzerland

The scenario is a tense security situation below the threshold of war with a terrorist and paramilitary threat preceding a conventional attack. Keystone / Carlo Reguzzi

A large-scale military exercise will take place this week in the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel and Bern, the Swiss army has announced. Some 4,000 militia and professional soldiers will take part in the exercise.

From May 1 to May 9, French-speaking western Switzerland will host a large-scale military exercise called “LUX 23”. The operation will simulate a threat by armed separatist militias from a fictitious European region. In view of risk of attacks on critical infrastructure, the army is being mobilised throughout the country.

LUX 23 will involve the Swiss Army’s territorial division 1, which includes French-speaking Switzerland and the canton of Bern. The exercise will focus on cooperation with the partners of the National Security Network and the surveillance of borders and critical infrastructures, such as Geneva airport or the Cressier refinery in the canton of Neuchâtel.

Movement on the ground and in the air

About 4,000 soldiers and 23 corps are participating in LUX 23. They will be deployed in areas of exploration, transmission, air defence, engineering and rescue. In addition, there will be members of the Special Forces Command, the Federal Office of Customs and Border Protection (FOCP), police forces and the French army.

The exercise will involve the movement of motorised formations, helicopter flights and exercises on Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchâtel. However, disruptions to civilian life will be reduced to a strict minimum, according to the Swiss Army. A hotline [phone]) is open to the public, in addition to the information already available on the internet.

A “low, but not non-existent” threat level

For the soldiers involved, it will also be a question of training “combat against terrorist and paramilitary threats”, the army states in its press release. The exercise is particularly designed to test a new category of defence unit, the so-called light forces. In the future, these forces should be able to support the civil authorities in their defence protection tasks at short notice.

On its website, the Swiss army explains that the threat level in the country is “low, but not non-existent”. Hence the importance, it says, of “regular training to maintain a high level of competence, including for defence against an armed attack.”

However, according to the army, LUX 23 has been planned for several years and is not a direct response to the war in Ukraine. 

“Developments in the security situation in Europe simply confirm the relevance of this exercise,” the army stated.