The Swiss Armed Forces rely heavily on the small but dedicated Zielflugstaffel 12 for ground-to-air target practice. Patrick Dirksen and Frank Mink were invited to take a look behind the scenes and learn more about the daily operations of this unique Swiss Air Force squadron.
Zielflugstaffel 12
Zielflugstaffel 12 (ZflSt 12, Aerial Target Squadron 12) flies half a dozen specially equipped Pilatus PC-9s from Militärflugplatz Emmen in the central canton of Lucerne. Commander of the unit – which comes under the direct control of Flugplatzkommando 7 (Flpl Kdo 7, Airfield Command 7) Emmen – is Major Peter ‘Pesche’ Michel, who told AFM: “We’ve had only six PC-9 aircraft since 2017. We also lost the F-5 Tiger from our squadron as of January 1 last year.”
ZflSt 12 primarily provides aerial targets and jamming services for the Swiss Armed Forces’ Oerlikon Skyguard – a 35mm twin-cannon all-weather low/medium-level air defence system – as well as for the Rapier radarguided surface-to-air missile system and the shoulder-launched FIM-92 Stinger missile.
The main training area is the S-chanf firing range located in the Graubünden canton. Before sorties to the range, a briefing takes place in which both the pilot and …
