Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
I use Australia during WWII as a basis for my arguement that Switzerland cannot sustain an active military strength of 625,000 for long.
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You are perfectly right but Australia was fighting a bitter war. It was fully mobilized in WW2. Switzerland in T2K is not. It simply has to protect its borders. Also in WW2, Switzerland had mobilized as much as 850.000 troops out of a population of, then, 4 Millions. However, I doubt that they were serving full time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
I don't understand where you are finding 625,000 trained soldiers? From what I can see, in July 2009, "the armed forces consist of 134,886 people on active duty, of which 4,230 are professionals, with the rest being conscripts or volunteers". There are a further 77,000 reserves. It seems very doubtful that anyone not in the military will be given a military weapon, although it is possible they would have sporting rifles, shotguns, etc.
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I have the 1990 figures, these coming from before the "Army 95" (the current number are difined by "Army XXI") that sized down the military force to 400.000. Then, the 625.000 include reserve as you should remember that the Swiss Army at the time was a militia (I have seen somewhere that it could mobilized 800.000 but I can't confirm that figure). About the civil defense, don't forget that they don't serve as full time and can be assimilated to an emergency reserve.
About guns, you are wrong. It is normal policy for Switzerland to have its militiamen keeping his assault gun at home. By 2001, they were still 800.000 around in Swiss private home. In T2K (a cold war situation), you can at least add a further 400.000. Back in 1990, I was at school with a swiss guy who was 21. At the time, as all men under 50 he had to do military training for a week each year. He had his own assault gun at home. Switzerland was, then, capable of full mobilization in less than 72 hours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_pol...in_Switzerland
Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
To sum up, it just doesn't seem feasible for Switzerland to field a strong military for more than a few weeks in a 12 month period. Even training time would be restricted due to the pressing need to feed the population.
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I agree with what you say about feeding but Switzerland will certainly turn to what it did in WW2 and that means turning any arable land into food production. Moreover, industry will be working at a very low level (due to raw material shortages and power cuts). As a result, the number of workers needed will be much lower than during peace time. Non-strategic production will be downed to zero and these workers will be sent to farm the land.