Swiss military weapons exports soar in 2014

Sales rose to 563.5 million francs in 2014, 102.3 million francs more than the previous year, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) said.

Seco noted that the level of military exports in 2013 was marked by a sharp drop from the year earlier.

Last year’s military exports accounted for 0.26 percent of all Swiss exports, up from 0.22 percent in 2013.

The supply of air defence systems and their ammunition to Indonesia for 121.5 million francs accounted for the single biggest single military order in 2014, Seco said.

This was followed by a 100.8-million-franc order to Germany for armoured vehicles.

Overall, Germany was the largest customer for Swiss military materiel with total sales of 186.9 million francs, followed by Indonesia (121.4 million francs).

Italy was the third largest purchaser (49.3 million francs), ahead of the US (34.6 million francs), Great Britain (20.8 million francs) and France (20.8 million francs). 

For more details, check the Seco press release (in French, German and Italian).