Three different military uniforms for infantry recruits
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Swiss infantry recruits near the barracks of Colombier, off Lake Neuchâtel
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Applying camouflage face paint
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Wet room for the troops in a former fortress on top of the Gotthard Pass in central Switzerland
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A trainee member of the parachute reconnaissance unit in Altmatt handling machine gun ammunition
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Soldiers in a Super Puma helicopter monitoring data of an aeroradiometric survey on behalf of the National Emergency Operations Centre
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Mountain specialists in action: a stretcher with a wounded victim is lowered from a cliff above the Devil's Bridge in the Schöllenen Gorge
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The mobile kitchen's task is to provide catering for the troops in the field
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Lunch in the barracks of Andermatt
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The army band performing on Parliament Square during a state visit to Bern by India's president in 2011
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An F/A-18 fighter plane of the Swiss Airforce waiting to leave the hangar in Meiringen
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A squadron of the airforce's aerobatic team during a training sortie near Emmen
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Members of the Swiss army install a fence along a helicopter airport at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos
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A cannon seen from the outside at the former army fortress on the Gotthard Pass
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Members of a special unit in winter camouflage gear
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Sleeping quarters in the dorms of the barracks at Colombier
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The Swiss Armed Forces train their members for a multitude of activities, including reconnaissance flights, close combat and abseiling. But critics want a radical overhaul.
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In September, voters will have the final say on a proposal by pacifists to scrap the conscription system and replace the militia army with professional troops. (Images: Keystone)
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Battle for Swiss army set for third ballot
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Jakob Büchler, who heads a broad-based political committee which is against the initiative, is convinced of the true intentions of the pacifist Group for a Switzerland Without an Army. “Their initiative is an attack on the successful Swiss model, an attack against our army. The group not only want to abolish conscription, they want to eliminate…
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In the hot noonday sun the Epeisses rescue training centre near Geneva is like a ghost town. Everywhere there are hulking piles of rubble and concrete. Buildings rest at impossible angles, their floors compressed so that they resemble the layers of a sandwich. They wait to swallow the latest group of soldiers who have come…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.