Netherlands Defence Note 2024
On 5 September 2024, the Dutch Minister of Defence (MoD), Ruben Brekelmans, officially presented the Defence Note 2024. The Defence budget will be increased to € 24 billion.
According to the minister, the investments are necessary, because after a long period of peace in Europe, the Netherlands must actively contribute to deterring opponents in order to prevent an armed conflict. New threats require action. NATO sets higher requirements and the new purchases are in line with this.
Looking specifically at the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu, Royal Netherlands Air Force) the Defence Note shows the following changes and investments:
- an order for six additional F-35A Lightning IIs to be added to the three existing squadrons, increasing the total number of F-35As to 58
- a small number of additional NH90 helicopters for the maritime helicopter fleet. The number includes the replacement of the NH90 that was lost in July 2020. The support of maritime and amphibious (combat) operations is thus strengthened and the long-term deployment of ships with an on-board helicopter can be combined with short operations with helicopter support by marines from the ship.
Next to this, the Ministry of Defence is investing in unmanned airborne intelligence and reconnaissance capacity (joint airborne intelligence, reconnaissance & surveillance, ISR) that can be deployed in various threat scenarios. The MoD states "For this purpose, an unmanned platform is being acquired that can survive in the highest spectrum of violence and can therefore collect and share important data deep in enemy territory. The existing MQ-9 capacity is not suitable for this. In this way, Defence is better fulfilling a NATO Priority Target and a major shortfall within the EU."
The Defence Note does not say what type of unmanned platform will be purchased, but this will definitely be a 'high-end' Unmanned Aerial System, able to conduct a variety of ISR-missions in a high-threat environment.
Credit photos: Erik Kamphuis and Richard Baas (both Scramble Archive)