Tri-national Military Exercise in Austrian Allentsteig with Almost 1,000 Swiss Soldiers
The multinational military exercise “TRIAS25” began at the Allentsteig military training area in Lower Austria. Around 1,300 soldiers from Switzerland, Germany, and Austria will be training together until May 9. The exercise aims to strengthen the interoperability of the armed forces and test new operational concepts.
The headquarters of the Allensteig military training area is located in Allentsteig Castle. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / C.Stadler/Bwag / CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
It is the largest maneuver of its kind in three decades: In the midst of growing geopolitical uncertainties, the armed forces of Austria, Germany and Switzerland are currently conducting the multinational military exercise “TRIAS25” in Allentsteig, Lower Austria. The four-week troop trial, which began on April 14, involves around 1,300 soldiers and is far more than just repetitive training. The focus is on testing a new defense concept - under conditions that Switzerland cannot offer at home.
An unusual marching order: Foreign combat for Swiss soldiers
Participation in “TRIAS25” is a first for the approximately 950 members of the Swiss Armed Forces. On 15 April, the troops of Mechanized Battalion 14 from Mechanized Brigade 11 moved their Leopard battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and several tons of equipment by train from Thun (BE) to Allentsteig. The aim: practical testing of the “Future of the Ground Forces” project, which is comprehensively reorganizing the Swiss Armed Forces.
The training content includes deployment, trench warfare, local combat and the recapture of critical infrastructure - in a scenario that simulates a hybrid threat close to the Swiss border. “It's not a classic nation-to-nation maneuver. The exercise will be carried out in mixed teams. This promotes our ability to cooperate,” emphasized General Benedikt Roos, Commander of the Swiss Army.
Allentsteig - a training ground with a rare privilege
In Switzerland, realistic exercises with live fire combined with large-scale movements of mechanized units are hardly possible. In Allentsteig, on the other hand, there is not only 150 square kilometers of training space available, but also a permit for live firing - a “decisive advantage”, as Brigadier General Christoph Roduner explained at a press conference in Thun. The exercise costs Switzerland around four million Swiss francs more than a comparable domestic exercise - an investment that is clearly being consciously accepted.
Germany and Austria: well-rehearsed partners
Training alongside the Swiss are 200 soldiers from the Austrian Armed Forces and 140 members of the German Armed Forces. The Austrian Armed Forces are not only providing the site, but are also providing logistical and infrastructural support. Austria's Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner also sees the exercise as “an enormous enrichment in getting to know the respective operational techniques and a strengthening of joint capabilities”. German-Austrian cooperation in the military sector has a long tradition - Austrian troops last trained at the Bergen military training area (Lower Saxony) in the fall of 2024, among other things in preparation for international missions.
Multidimensional defense: Air, ground and cyber
The focus of “TRIAS25” is not only on ground troops. According to the Swiss Armed Forces leadership, it is also about coordination with air forces, as well as the integration of modern technologies - such as drones and the integration of the electromagnetic and information space. It is a clear response to new threat situations in which war is waged below the conventional war threshold - i.e. hybrid.
Cyber exercises and future cooperation
The exercise is an expression of intensified security policy networking in German-speaking countries. There are currently 150 military cooperation projects between Switzerland and Austria alone, supported by 13 bilateral agreements. An Austrian contingent was already deployed in the international cyber exercise “Locked Shields” in Switzerland in April 2024.
General Roos announced that further joint exercises are planned in Germany and Austria over the next two to three years. The current exercise is a “historic step” towards a new understanding of territorial defense - not as a purely national task, but as a cooperative responsibility.
New quality of military cooperation
TRIAS25 demonstrates a new quality of military cooperation in the D-A-CH region. It is not just a large-scale manoeuvre of mechanized forces, but a test case for a comprehensive strategic reorientation. For Switzerland, it means nothing less than the start of a new era of national defense - and for Europe, it sends a clear signal: security cooperation between neutral and NATO member states works.