reasons, the Swiss Air Force is increasingly participating in air defence training exercises with many NATO counterparts. These exercises have covered the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the Euro 2008 football championships, and the annual World Economic Forum. Operational structure Air defence, air surveillance and air policing During the past 35 years, Swiss military and civil airspace control depended on the FLORIDA (FLugsicherungs Operations Radar IDentifikation Alarm – Flight Ops, Radar Identifying, and Alerting) air defense system. Since its phasing out, however, the Swiss airspace control and defence is being carried out by the THALES Raytheon FLORAKO. This system is being operated from 4 fixed locations on the Pilatus, Scopi, Weisshorn and Weissfluh mountains. At least one of these Command, Control, and Communications (C3) facilities is always connected to the Air Defence & Direction Center (ADDC or air ops centre) at Dübendorf Air Base and fully operational on-line on a 24/7 basis, monitoring Swiss airspace. Depending on the international situation, more facilities will be manned; in case of crisis or war (ADDC and 4 facilities operational) radarcoverage will be extended far beyond the Swiss boundaries. Each of these facilities is capable of making all battle management decisions in case of elimination of the ADDC or other facilities. The first FLORAKO unit activated in 2003 and the operational lifetime of this hi-tech system is guaranteed by its manufacturers for at least 25 years. The system consists of: A communication system KOMSYS. Integrating element of all geographically divided parts of the FLORAKO system uniting speech, data communications, and system commands in a single data network. A radar station FLORES. Consisting of standard high-power search radars, advanced radars (search mode, high-update ratio, and special functions), and civil authority mono-pulse secondary radars. The 4 radar stations are the main data sources and are complemented by existing military and civil radar data. A radar layer-system RALUS. Translating the data automatically into flight paths and producing a complete civil-military air picture for all authorities. A warning message system LUNAS-EZ. AirOps Centres are the combining factors between the FLORAKO-system with real-time data (air picture, planning, and environmental data) and its military users. Workstations are identically configured and built accordingly to latest ergonomics, visual colour high resolution, menu guidance, and known user environment. The Dübendorf Air Defence & Direction Centre – as well as the air operations units in the Alps – are equally equipped, thus assuring full-time