Armasuisse

Armasuisse is a federal agency of the Swiss Confederation. It is the procurement organization for armaments of Switzerland and is affiliated with the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport.

Armasuisse employs around 750 people. The budget was 217 million Swiss francs in 2006. National Armaments Director is Martin Sonderegger.

The Armasuisse group covers many skills as a provider with a broad field of activity. This ranges from the evaluation, procurement, maintenance and liquidation of materials and systems for the Comprehensive Real Estate Management in VBS to ensuring scientific and technical services. Main clients and partners is the army.

As a forerunner of the Armasuisse it was the War Technical Department, which was subordinated to the army top until the so-called Mirage Affair of 1964 took place. In the Mid-1960s, it was named as a group for military services (GRD) a separate organizational unit, on a par with (among others) the group of general staff services. Since that time, the chief executive of the GRD is called Chief of Armament and is equivalent to the rank of a corps commander. In 1994 it has been renamed to Armor Group (GR). In 2001, the Federal Office of Topography of the group armor was assumed. Finally, in 2003 the group was divided into RUAG armor (with all maintenance and production operations of GR) and armasuisse (procurement and related technical and scientific bodies).

The Armasuisse was divided by mid-2008 in six areas of competence:

The Federal structure was replaced by a competence structure in the fall of 2008, see below management.

CEO Martin Sonderegger, National Armaments Director

The procurement consists of the areas of competence management and intelligence systems, land systems, aerospace systems, purchasing and cooperation. It is responsible for the active participation in the planning process of the customer, strategic procurement and sales management, the operational implementation of evaluation, acquisition, sale, disposal and the support of the use and maintenance phases. The main partner is the Defence sector, represented in particular by the Planning Staff of the Army and Armed Forces Logistics. The planning staff is responsible for the defense planning, formulated as the customer needs of the army and sets out the requirements. Armasuisse takes in the procurement procedure to implement the requirements of the purchaser from the army and administration.

The competence of science and technology of the VBS offers its technical and scientific achievements in four product categories: technology services for the Army systems (e.g., testing, analysis), risk analysis and safety concepts, quality management, and technology and research management. These include the technology monitoring, the implementation of research projects as well as national and international networking with universities, research, industry and multilateral research and development projects. S & T has a unique underground shooting channel. Services in the areas of ballistics, explosives diagnostics, electromagnetic compatibility, electronics and optronics are also available to private customers.

...
Wikipedia