. The Swiss Aeronautical Self-Defence Force .

This page last modified: April 18, 2000

In retrospect, it can be seen that the recreation of the Duchy of Burgundy as an independent state by the Congress of Vienna in 1816 caused the collapse of the centuries-old treaty that ensured the foreign policy of the united Swiss cantons was purely isolationist.

Burgundian expansionism threatened the Swiss unity, aiming as it did to woo the Swiss High-Savoy into joining the nascent Burgundian state. The last decade of the 19th century has seen active conflict between the Burgundians and the Dutch, and the Dutch have turned to Switzerland for an ally to threaten the Burgundians' flank. The Swiss would not have been willing to embroil themselves in a war, their first in centuries, were it not for the anarchist bombing of Basel station, and unjustly-blamed by the Dutch on the Burgundians.

This event turned the tide of public opinion in favour of the Dutch concord, and as a result the fledgeling Swiss Aeronautical Self-Defence Force has found itself in the forefront of military operations.

The Swiss lack any aeronefs worthy of the name cruiser, or even destroyer, their two largest vessels being armed only with two single 4 inch guns; they do however possess a number of smaller craft armed with tethered bombs, an option only made possible by the high altitude ceiling of all Swiss aerial vessels - indeed, their Burgundian opponents are at present hampered in being completely unable to negotiate many of the higher Alpine passes.

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