UK Defence Forum

HNLMS Walrus sailing into Portsmouth Harbour on Friday 16th February 2018.







Sailing out, Monday 19th February 2018.

So it seems that in 2022 a new Combat Support Ship will join the Royal Netherlands Navy, its name is already chosen but not yet revealed, the Combat Support Ship will arrive before the new frigates,mine hunters and submarines the Royal Netherlands Navy is planning to add.

So the Netherlands department of Defense has just released the Defense White Paper 2018, the effects are a increase of finance and also a lot of new stuff.

lordroel wrote: the Combat Support Ship will arrive before the new frigates,mine hunters and submarines the Royal Netherlands Navy is planning to add.

Might explain why nothing much heard after this 2 1/2 years old news piece:
"

The Saab-Damen teaming deal's focus — to join forces in pursuit of the Dutch Navy's Walrus-class submarine replacement project and similar naval program opportunities globally — has particularly piqued FMV's interest.

The Netherlands is set to replace the 2,756 long-ton, life-extended Walrus subs, which entered service in the 1990s, after 2025.

The FMV sees advantages for Sweden in finding industrial partnerships that can lead to the sharing of development and maintenance costs in respect of the Saab Kockums-run A-26 submarine program, said Lena Erixon, the FMV's director general.

"From Sweden's perspective, it is important that we can share submarine development costs with other reliable countries. The Netherlands is such a country," Erixon said in a statement. "

Norway having gone a different way, I guess Poland is still a potential (further) partner?

Question, this is the new Dutch Army combat uniform, is it me ore does it look borrowed from a other country combat uniform.

I am pretty sure the Dutch Marines used to wear UK style DPM clothing I the past.

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought it was the other way round.

(ships, planes and games) 8/6/2018

Royal Netherlands Navy frigate ZrMs Tromp has arrived in Portsmouth today

(ships, planes and gaming) 11th June 2018

And out, on Monday 11th June.

Crewmembers of Zr Ms_Holland in New York, a nice picture it is.

Focus on the Tromp during the Belgian Navy Days

Netherlands buying 4 MQ-9 Reaper.

Not the latest Protector version...also unarmed, which seems like quite an oversight.

https://www.defensenews.com/digital-sho ... er-drones/

Had the chance to tour the Thales Nederland site earlier this year, and learn about the amazing capabilities of the SMART L MM.

New frigate design by Damen
This is likely what the future Belgo-Dutch frigates will look like (with some tweaks)

IndoDefence 2018: Damen Unveils 6000 Tons 'Omega' Frigate

At IndoDefence 2018, the tri service defense exposition currently held in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dutch shipbuilding group Damen unveiled the new 6,000 tons class 'Omega' Frigate design.

Talking to Navy Recognition at the event, Bob De Smedt, one of the naval architect who worked on the Omega project, explained that the scale model on display is representative of an early concept for the future Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) and Belgian Navy (Marinecomponent / Composante marine) M Frigate replacement. However the main reason the new Omega class of frigates was unveiled at IndoDefence (and not Euronaval for example which was held two weeks ago) is because Damen is now ready to answer Indonesia's potential need for a large frigate (hence the 'FFI' name on a Damen image, standing for Future Frigate Indonesia).

(much) more at: https://www.navyrecognition.com/index.p ... igate.html

now your talking! looks space age as owt ,why cant our crappy type31 look like that ?...I want one

That is stealthily it almost makes the T26 look cluttered and that's hard to do

The new Combat Support Ship that will carry the name Den Helder.

The roadmap to 2024

“.......This government is committed to further increase defence spending in order to fulfill the Defence Investment Pledge. A step towards this goal is to invest in our capability targets as stated in the NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP). Of these capability targets, we have prioritised five. These are:

procurement of additional F-35s (15 in total above the 37 already ordered).

reinforcement of land capabilities through investment in direct and indirect firing power.

strengthening of maritime capabilities through investment in BMD-capabilities.

additional enablers for our Special Operations Forces (on ground and in air, including an additional rotary wing).

the expansion of our capabilities in the cyber and information domain.

This government intends to make additional funds available for these five capabilities. The intention is to take a step towards this goal as part of the deliberations in the spring of 2019 at the appropriate time matching our national budget cycle.

These five capabilities are another substantial step towards meeting the goals that were set out in the Investment Pledge. Furthermore, the Netherlands will meet a substantially larger part of its capability targets in the short and medium term. They will contribute to ensuring rapid response, increasing readiness and improving sustainability of the Netherlands’ armed forces......”

Netherlands government approves NATO national plan

I wonder if they will get back into armoured warfare properly, forming a Dutch Mechanised Brigade or similar with their own MBTs again, rather than providing Mechanised Infantry for a German Brigade. They would only need around 50 platforms plus relevant support vehicles which should be readily available.

Lord Jim wrote: rather than providing Mechanised Infantry for a German Brigade. They would only need around 50 platforms plus relevant support vehicles which should be readily available.

Readily available? From memory they sold 100 of their tanks to Finland and kept c. 18 for training (they did keep the support variants)
- the Mech bde is self contained and part of 1 Panzer Division:
43 Mechanized Brigade in Havelte, (Royal Netherlands Army)
[ strange numbering, in the way of having bde and bns within it as a "running series"... is this some left-over from earlier downsizing of units - but keeping "the colours"?]

Baretembleem-JWF.jpg 43rd Staff Company in Havelte
Baretembleem Huzaren van Boreel.jpg 43rd Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron (43 Brigade Verkennings Eskadron) in Havelte with Fennek reconnaissance vehicles
Panzerbataillon414 Wappen 2016.jpg 414 Panzer Battalion (Panzerbataillon 414) in Bergen-Lohheide. In 2019 this battalion will consist off 48 Leopard 2A6. Distributed between 1 Dutch company and 3 German company's. [1]
Baretembleem-JWF.jpg 44th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (44 Pantserinfanteriebataljon Johan Willem Friso) in Havelte with 46 CV9035NL infantry fighting vehicles
Baretembleem-Oranje-Gelderland.jpg 45th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (45 Pantserinfanteriebataljon Regiment Oranje Gelderland) in Havelte with 46 CV9035NL infantry fighting vehicles
Baretembleem-Genie.jpg 11th Armoured Engineer Battalion (11 Pantsergeniebataljon) in Wezep

Lord Jim wrote:I wonder if they will get back into armoured warfare properly, forming a Dutch Mechanised Brigade or similar with their own MBTs again, rather than providing Mechanised Infantry for a German Brigade. They would only need around 50 platforms plus relevant support vehicles which should be readily available.

What have heard is that they might get more Dutch operated tanks, but if they will still operate as part of the Netherlands/German 414 Panzer Battalion i do not know.

Forming an organic all Dutch Mechanised Brigade, though still part of the 1st Panzer Division, would not be a great leap nor strain the finances too much, but it would do a lot to reinforce the appearance of Dutch commitment to NATO.

Lord Jim wrote:it would do a lot to reinforce the appearance of Dutch commitment to NATO.

I didn’t realise the Dutch had a problem?

A Dutch MECH/ARMD BDE attached to a German ARMD DIV would certainly reinforce Germany’s commitment to NATO.

Qwerty wrote:I didn’t realise the Dutch had a problem?

A Dutch MECH/ARMD BDE attached to a German ARMD DIV would certainly reinforce Germany’s commitment to NATO.

Quite (and we are seeing a similar interleaf structure emerging between France and Belgium) as - let's face it - divisions are the currency for manoeuvre warfare.

Germany's commitment has been on the up, ever since 2014, as evidenced by the process of upgrading 103 out-of-service Leopard 2A4 and 2A6 tanks to the latest model, the Leopard 2A7V—an upgrade that will cost the state the equivalent of 760 million euros ($833 million). The Bundeswehr is expanding its tank fleet by over 40 percent, from 225 to 320 main battle tanks (and there are currently only 20 A7s in service... so the initial order for 50 had been quietly cut or slowed down. This "V" in the version name promises better MOUT capabilities, though... we only have 22 such (add-on!) kits).

The revamped Leopards will enter service between 2019 and 2023. Such glacial pace is less down to money or industrial capacity and more to the difficulty with recruiting enough tank crews, for training, as the military career has not exactly been glorified under the earlier policies of the Merkel era... quite a long time, even when you factor in setting a new course over the last 4 years. (There are also provisions to convert thirty-two additional tanks into specialized engineering and bridge-laying support vehicles; so a good thing the Dutch did not include theirs in the "tank jumble sale").