The Security Union Exercise 2019 (SVU 19).
How can Switzerland cope with a prolonged terrorist threat? This was the subject of the Security Group Exercise 2019 (SVU 19) and the Global Emergency Exercise 2019 (GNU 19), which took place on 11-13 November 2019 and 12-14 November 2019 respectively. Although the official evaluation for the 2019 Safety Group Exercise (SVU 19) will not be presented until the end of 2020, initial lessons have been learned from the exercises.
The SVU 19 security exercise was designed to test how the security organisations involved can manage a crisis situation and how they cooperate in a threat situation that lasts over a longer period of time. The scenario was a prolonged terrorist threat through attacks against critical infrastructures, extortionate demands and threatening attacks.
One week before the start of the staff framework exercise, on 4 November 2019, the opening event of SVU 19 took place in the Bern Barracks. Here, more than 300 members of the security policy instruments of the Confederation, cantons and communes gathered. The aim of this opening event was to provide all the last important information and technical instructions on SVU 19, as well as to give an overview of the initial situation so that the necessary preparations could be completed.
The 52-hour exercise
The participants received the initial situation, i.e. the terrorist scenario, on 11 November 2019. At 7 a.m. on Monday, members of the cantonal police forces and those responsible for the cantonal command staffs (KFS) learned of a terrorist attack at Zurich railway station. This had suffered a large damage days earlier. Not only were 47 people killed and 78 injured, but a large part of the Swiss railway network was paralysed. On the same day, the already critical situation worsened:
The exercise participants had to deal with food poisoning caused by botulinum toxin, which resulted in four deaths and 60 suspected cases, the overflight of an unknown aircraft, which required rapid identification, and a large migration flow at Switzerland's southern border. The challenge was great, especially as the security forces were also called in to prepare for the fictitious high-security court proceedings that were due to begin on 13 November 2019 at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.
This fictitious scenario, which was developed with the support of the FIS, had to be as realistic as possible so that the various security forces involved could work closely together. It allowed the 61 staffs and organisations of the Confederation and the cantons, as well as some cities and critical infrastructures, to test their emergency crisis management.
The approximately 2100 people who took part in the 52-hour exercise worked decentrally, i.e. at their usual workplaces. The exercise command worked in an ad hoc operations centre in the Bern barracks. Consisting of the situation observation cell, the scenario cell, the contact cell, the media cell and the evaluation cell, it provided command and control of the exercise. Visits to the operations centre were organised during the exercise.
They began on 11 November 2019 with a visit to the political platform of the Swiss Security Network. On 12 November 2019, a first visit was organised for a delegation of the Security Policy Commissions and a member of the IGC MFZ, and a second visit for representatives of foreign embassies. Finally, on the last day of the exercise, it was the turn of the media representatives.
The consequences of the exercise
The activities surrounding SVU 19 ended with the closing event on 21 November 2019, at which the main participants reported on their first impressions of SVU 19 and judged it to be very valuable for their crisis preparedness. Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that cooperation between federal and cantonal security agencies could be practised.
In the case of the police, the threat situation, which had been set in the script, allowed coordination between the police corps and the Federal Office of Police to be reviewed and deepened. In the case of civil protection, this scenario affected all the partner organisations of the Civil Protection Network. The question was raised by the Civil Protection Command as to whether a counterpart to the Police Command Staff was necessary for civil protection, which will be clarified by the Civil Protection Command in the follow-up to the exercise.
With three (fictitious) Federal Council decisions, the armed forces had prepared to support the civilian authorities with an assistance mission of up to 8500 army personnel if required.
The presidents of the KKJPD, Cantonal Councillor Urs Hofmann, and the RK MZF, State Councillor Norman Gobbi, spoke from the SVS Political Platform. Both pointed out that the benefits of such overall exercises could be optimised even further if the political level of the Confederation were also involved, because the cantons need the corresponding docking points at the Confederation for political crisis communication. They thus confirmed the impression in this regard of the exercise leader Hans-Jürg Käser, who had already pointed out at the beginning of the event that the inclusion of the political level of the Confederation and the cantons was essential for the coordination of crisis communication.
All findings made during the exercise and the situation report will be the subject of a final report. These findings will be used to draw up recommendations for possible improvements to crisis management in Switzerland, which will be submitted to the Federal Council as well as the CCJPD and the RC MZF. Following their approval, the final report will be published at the end of 2020.
In parallel to the final report, the DDPS and the FC are jointly developing the next overall planning for large-scale exercises 2021-2027, which will also be submitted to the Federal Council and the cantons (via the KKJPD and RK MZF) by the end of 2020.
