Switzerland’s shrinking small arms industry

Switzerland’s shrinking small arms industry

Small arms manufacturing is on the decline in Switzerland. It’s a long way from the boom days. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

Small weapon manufacturing in Switzerland is on the decline. Even though manufacturers haven’t released trade figures, the downward trend is clear.

Gone are the days of the booming Swiss arms industry. One beneficiary was the Swiss company SIG, the official supplier of automatic assault rifles for the Swiss army. During the 20th century, its facilities in Neuhausen produced more than a million assault rifles. In 2000 SAN Swiss Arms took over the SIG weapons division and in 2014 half of the workers in Neuhausen were made redundant.


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16 Comments

  1. Miguel Hernandez on November 9, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    If the import laws in the US and some state laws weren’t bad Sig would make a lot of arms.



  2. ung427 on November 9, 2021 at 5:57 pm

    Beautiful rifles, I love the PE57. I’ve loved rifles from when I was a child starting with the fascination with the engineering behind everything in the rifle. I think from that sense the PE57 is the most awesome rifle.



  3. Steve Zissou on November 9, 2021 at 6:00 pm

    I have a few USA produced sig rifles myself but they need to flood the markets over here in the USA so that we can get more of those nice swiss quality sigs without the 4500 price tag. If they were 2000 or even $2250 I would be buying a couple myself.



  4. Freedom speech on November 9, 2021 at 6:04 pm

    Swiss is like a paradise



  5. Thomas Huebner on November 9, 2021 at 6:08 pm

    I would love to have a Stgw90 at home this days!



  6. Eisen J Eisen on November 9, 2021 at 6:08 pm

    And i still love my P220



  7. Wingman on November 9, 2021 at 6:08 pm

    As long as Sig Sauer exists, there will be hope at least for the SIG WEAPON. Sig Sauer already manufacture the "Sport" models 55X.



  8. Wilson Carmine on November 9, 2021 at 6:14 pm

    This is such a pity. Your weapons are probably the finest modern weapons produced. The quality of weapons from the USA has dropped where as Swiss weapons are still marvelous. My dream rifle is a SIG 550 with reversible ejection port and charging handle similar to the AK-12.

    Also, thank you SBC for being a more open minded news source than our BBC.



  9. Nuke the CCP (Odysee.com) on November 9, 2021 at 6:21 pm

    I’d buy a PE57 for < 3000 USD if they ever started reproducing them again, to the same quality…



  10. S Starklite on November 9, 2021 at 6:23 pm

    None of these factories should have ever existed because we should have built only Tower cities connected to maglev Trains to eliminate all the work, and to save lives, and to save the EARTH.



  11. Mike Lentsch on November 9, 2021 at 6:25 pm

    SIG won the US Army contract for the M17 pistol. So much for shrinking. Yay!



  12. Alex Dumitrescu on November 9, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    2019 socialism legalize drugs. Drugs related deaths 11000 ,guns related deaths 175 so let’s ban guns !



  13. Alex Agius on November 9, 2021 at 6:35 pm

    The reason is that its moving to the USA. The USA is the largest civilian market and location is of little issue for military contracts so being in the USA (and so not being subject to import restrictions) is a common sense approach.



  14. Alan Passat on November 9, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    in the UK all Pistols and semi auto guns are banned, because British people cannot be trusted not to kill each other. Legislation is also underway to ban all knifes, including knives used for eating. All cutkery is to be made of blunt plastic.



  15. Jeroen de Sterke on November 9, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    The USA market is being flooded with all sorts of makes, marques, rebuilds, kits, etc. etc and the laws which disallow foreign import is hitting hard. The UK banned self-loading rifles and – ten years later – handguns after two engineered tragedies of which the truth is still being repressed and being seen as an intrusion to their agendas.
    Although pen knives are treated as ‘Section 5’ (forbidden, unless you have a very special license), so the most stabbings occur with homemade weapons, screwdrivers – and the new thing on the menu of assault – acid.



  16. Niemand Binich on November 9, 2021 at 6:49 pm

    SIGs of every sort are immensely popular in the US. It has been said that the SIG 556 is everything the AK should have been and everything the M4 never was.