Airborne Intelligence Acquisition of the Swiss Air Force

The Air Force's Air Reconnaissance Division conducts airborne intelligence gathering through a variety of platforms and organizations.

The Air Reconnaissance Service is responsible for planning and evaluating the imaging sensors of combat aircraft and for creating aerial images from all Air Force aircraft. Satellite images are also evaluated in a military intelligence context. In addition, the Air Reconnaissance Service maintains the Air Force's aerial photo archive with approx. 150,000 aerial photos and operates the photo service at the Dübendorf military airbase.

The FLIR specialist service is another element of airborne intelligence gathering. Operations are carried out with the FLIR III system on the TH06 Super Puma helicopter for the benefit of the army, Swiss police forces or the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG). Thanks to the high availability within the framework of the permanent readiness "Search and Rescue" (SAR - during 365 days / 24 hours / 1 hour response time), the means is often used in the case of unpredictable events or to provide assistance to persons in an emergency situation.

Together with the professional organization, the Drone Command 84 (Dro Kdo 84) ensures the daily operations of the new reconnaissance drone system 15 (ADS 15), with the aircraft type "Hermes 900 HFE". Reconnaissance services are provided for the benefit of military and civilian service providers (blue-light organizations). In addition, Dro Kdo 84 carries out the selection, training and education of militia drone operators (MDO) and professional drone pilots (BDP).

All organizations and intelligence systems operate heavily in a digitally driven environment - from intelligence gathering and analysis to the secure and timely dissemination of intelligence results.

The "Airborne Intelligence Acquisition" stand is a static exhibition with pictures and information about the three organizations. In addition to models of platforms and sensors, specialists will be on hand to provide information about their activities and working equipment. Likewise, one can look over the shoulders of the evaluation officers air reconnaissance (Aw Of LA) in their work of aerial image analysis.