ST MAURICE (Switzerland): For sale: dozens of fighter jets, howitzers, anti-aircraft guns, tanks and helicopters. Like new. Call Swiss army for details.

Neutral Switzerland’s military has not taken out advertisements quite yet, but the weapons really are up for grabs as the army scales down for the post-Cold War era.

It is a jolting but inevitable turn of events for the army, whose central role in Swiss society is being undermined by the end of the “Communist threat” and the growing reluctance of employers to let staff disappear into uniform for weeks at a time.

Nearly every able-bodied Swiss man still has a rifle at home for the day when invaders finally come pouring across the border, but the downsizing of the army means their national service obligations have been sharply reduced.

Not a day too soon, many young soldiers say.

At a training camp in the southern canton of Valais, male recruits still belly their way from a camouflaged bunker into trenches and open fire with bazookas at simulated tanks crossing an Alpine valley at the foot of snow-dusted peaks.

Automatic weapons fire erupts at pop-up yellow targets designed to mimic enemy infantry as the whoosh of bazooka training rounds cascades off the valley walls.

But for these young men living out the Swiss military tradition of their forefathers, a stint in the army is practically over in less than a year.

“I have 200 days down and 100 to go. At the end of December, I’m done,” said 20-year-old Marcel Sieber, from the canton of St Gallen who was drafted in March and opted for fast-track armed service.

FAST TRACK: Under the old system he would have followed basic training with yearly refresher courses. Now he can choose to wrap up 300 days of active service at one stretch, pass his obligatory annual target shooting test, and spend 10 years in the reserves.