Sovereignty in the third dimension
The Business Area AIR carries out maintenance as well as repair work, modifications, upgrades and system integrations for air systems. In the following, we take a look at the three selected projects which highlight our competencies and our reliability.
The comprehensive service portfolio of the Business Area AIR ranges from evaluation and final assembly to the resale of systems at the end of their life cycle. Fleet management, engineering, maintenance, repair, and overhaul, modifications and upgrades as well as system development and integration are at the core of life-cycle management.
RUAG has successfully completed numerous key projects as well as won additional projects. As a reliable partner of the Swiss Air Force, it thus played an essential part in ensuring the continued airworthiness of the F/A-18 fleet. In this context and within the scope of life cycle extension, subprojects for the review and refurbishment of aircraft structures were concluded.
In the summer of 2022, the engine test facility celebrated a special anniversary: The thousandth F/A-18 engine was thoroughly tested. Since the procurement of the F/A-18 fighter aircraft in 1998, their F404 engines have been maintained at the RUAG site in Stans and tested at the engine test facility in Ennetmoos. Every year, around 30 to 60 engines are inspected at the test facility – an essential contribution to the maintenance of the F/A-18 fleet.
Our employees also demonstrated their competencies in the “TH98 value preservation” project that focused on the modernization of the about 20-year-old Cougar helicopters of the Swiss Air Force, the last of which was delivered by mid-2022. The project team has worked some three years for this success.
Another highlight was the contract signing for the modernization of the F-5 aircraft of the US Navy. As a subsupplier, RUAG will carry out maintenance work on 22 F-5 aircraft and the respective 44 engines. This project enables us to sustain our unique F-5 expertise, which is indispensable for our core business, so that we can continue to make our contribution to the sovereign security of Switzerland. Furthermore, it is an important third-party business in line with the owner’s strategy.
RUAG is proud of its employees: In the past few years, they built up and expanded their knowhow and accepted their responsibility, which made it possible to implement the projects described above as well as numerous other projects.