The Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) has delayed the completion of a planned new data center until 2035.

The KASTRO II facility at Mitholz in Switzerland’s Kandergrund municipality was one of three planned for use by the Swiss Army and expected to be operational by 2023.

The facility is part of a national CHF510 million (US$661m) upgrade of Switzerland’s network of military data centers known as the ‘new digitalization platform’ (NDP). Reduced funding and the ministry’s inability to build the data center in Mitholz, however, have necessitated a delay in the construction of KASTRO II.

DCD has approached the ministry for comment.

“The project to build the three data centers CAMPUS, FUNDAMENT, and KASTRO II was originally scheduled for completion in 2023,” the ministry said in a statement. “CAMPUS and FUNDAMENT have been built, and these two projects are now complete. However, the KASTRO II data center cannot be built at its originally planned location in Mitholz. It will now be continued as a separate project.”

Construction of the KASTRO II data center will now begin in 2033, with the facility becoming operational as soon as the following year.

The facility is designed to act as the command node for a new data network for the Swiss Army consisting of microwave links and fiber-optic cabling. KASTRO II will host decentralized computer rooms and improved IT security systems and infrastructure.

Though designed for exclusive military use, emergency services will also be able to access the network in exceptional circumstances, the Swiss armed forces stated in an explanatory video.

The upgrade of the Swiss Army’s communications network forms part of a wider push by the country’s federal government to modernise its data center network. These facilities, said the defense ministry, are now “reaching… performance and capacity limits.” According to the federal government’s ICT strategy for 2012-2015 / 2016-2019, its data centers will eventually be consolidated into a handful of large facilities so as to boost the network’s security and energy efficiency.

Learn more about the data center market in Switzerland and the wider DACH region, and meet with other executives and experts at the DCN Zurich event later this year.