Fundamentals

The cooperation between the Foundation HAM under private law and the Swiss Confederation and with the Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPS), is based on several legal foundations. Centrally important for us are:

At the federal level, it is the Federal Act on Federal Collections and Museums (Museums and Collections Act, MSG) of June 12, 2009. In 2007, the DDPS issued the VAMAT, the Ordinance of the DDPS on Army Material. The then head of the DDPS, Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid, approved the collection concept on 30 November 2007 and the implementation concept on 4 April 2008.

Within the DDPS, the Centre for Historic Equipment of the Armed Forces (CHEAF) – a unit of Armed Forces Planning – has overall responsibility for the three collections of historical material of the Swiss Armed Forces. CHEAF has concluded a service agreement (SLA) with each of three foundations:

• Historic Military Equipment Trust (HAM)
• Historic Military Command Support Equipment Trust (HAMFU)
• Museum and Historic Equipment of the Swiss Air Force Trust (MHMLW)

The service level agreement (SLA) with CHEAF was concluded on September 16, 2008. A service agreement has been in place between the Foundation and VSAM since January 1, 2009.