Swiss parliament calls for a more flexible army

The Swiss army must be more flexible to meet the needs of its personnel according to the Swiss Senate. On Wednesday, the Senate largely approved the amendments to the Armed Forces Act requested by the federal government. It did, however, make a few changes. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The draft introduces greater flexibility for recruit schools and refresher courses, said Defence Minister Martin Pfister. It also empowers the government to call up a maximum of 18 armed forces personnel for deployments lasting more than three weeks, without requiring the approval of parliament. This is compared with the current limit of 10 for the same period. The Senate decided to remove the limit on the number of military personnel. The number of troops is to be determined according to the requirements of the operation. In addition, a transitional provision should allow the army to exceed its actual strength for a maximum of five years. The federal government has ...