Military going to the dogs, again. And now for good.

[Treize]

Dutch Defence Minister Hans Hillen has said that 10,000 army jobs will be cut in the next few years.
One month into the job, Mr Hillen explained to the Lower House that his department is seeking cuts of "hundreds of millions of euros". Precise figures are not available yet, pending an investigation into the financial situation of the Defence ministry. What is clear is that one in seven employees will lose their jobs in a ruthless economy drive; currently the ministry employs 48,000 military and 21,000 civilian personnel.
Exhausted The armed forces have been told to put the brakes on their spending commitments. As a result, maintenance work on army barracks will be suspended, and delivery of spare parts for military equipment has been delayed. This has led to a sharp reduction in the number of army, navy and airforce exercises involving frigates, Fennek vehicles, armoured howitsers, helicopters and F-16 fighterplanes.
Minister Hillen said that the armed forces had exhausted themselves, trying to realise their ambitions despite a shrinking budget. Redressing the balance is one of the aims of Mr Hillen, a weathered Christian Democrat and a skilled negotiator.
Skeletons Opposition Labour MP Angelien Eijsink reacted that she is "shocked by the skeletons tumbling out of the Defence ministry's cupboard", though praising Mr Hillen's frank appraisal of the situation. "The Labour Party has been warning about financial mismanagement at the Ministry of Defence. Now the employees will suffer." She is calling for a parliamentary inquiry to find out who is responsible for "this near-bankruptcy". The MP stopped short of pointing the finger at previous Ministers of Defence, Eijmert van Middelkoop of the Christian Union and rightwing liberal Henk Kamp.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/dutc...et_111661.html

So it is going to be a billion, out of eight. A victory for the traitorious broken gun pacifists today;

They are at this moment announcing the cuts.

Likely:
-Closure of the marine helicopter base, the heli's will be placed at the currect F-16 base that will soon be vacant of F-16's.


Confirmed:
-50% air defence reduction.
-All tanks gone, 60 years of experience down the drain.
-4 out of 10 minehunters gone.
-Two out of 4 planned OPV's to be slashed (the only good thing).
-Sale of a AOR, so we will end up with the new JSS as the only AOR. In 2014.
-Subs will stay.
-Third DC-10 will not be finished modernising and sold.
-Marine Corps Stingers gone.
-25% Patriot reduction
-From 87 to 68 F-16's.
-Slashing the entire Cougar fleet.
-From 24 to 18 artillery pieces.
-Reduction Fennek MRAT.
-More outsourcing, to appease the corporate mates of the VVD. 90% sure it will be more expensive, like all other outsourcing.
-Severe cuts in the wages and a reduction of 2/4 workhours per week.

Source:
http://www.mijnbestand.nl/Bestand-6HANU4DRUJBW.pdf

Why not pull the plug in its entirety because this is just embarrassing.

EDIT:

Belgian army...

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

Why does the dutch need an army?

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

Why does the dutch need an army?

Just because things are relatively peaceful over there now doesn't mean they'll continue being so for eternity. And it's bad to rely solely on superpower allies, you need to retain a local-bred army in case of a war, we all remember the US's initial neutrality in the world wars. And the US might make budget cuts too.

[Treize]

Begone.

If we don't need an army then Ireland, Belgium, Danmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, most of Eastern-Europe, New-Zealand, Portugal, greece and all the rest can abolish it as well. Because we are bigger than all those countries.

[Menelik_I]

Why not pull the plug in its entirety because this is just embarrassing.

Well maybe because nobody is going to invade you and there is no longer a Dutch West Indies Empire to defend.

In the case of a remote extremely unlikely Russian invasion of Europe, the Americans will deal with it anyway ... so why bother.

[Poach]

Well maybe because nobody is going to invade you and there is no longer a Dutch West Indies Empire to defend.

In the case of a remote extremely unlikely Russian invasion of Europe, the Americans will deal with it anyway ... so why bother.

It's exactly that kind of attitude that's caused the majority of European militaries to become weak and largely incapable of doing much. Only France and the UK have any sort of global capability, and Germany's military is a shadow of what it could be.

As for the Dutch military, it's sad but perhaps necessary if they're making budget cuts. The British Armed Forces had to deal with it too, unfortunately.

[Menelik_I]

It's exactly that kind of attitude that's caused the majority of European militaries to become weak and largely incapable of doing much. Only France and the UK have any sort of global capability, and Germany's military is a shadow of what it could be.

Why global capacity is taken as an indispensable requisite for defence ? Isn't the whole point to defend your own country, so in that sense they are doing their jobs in a capable way.

But this doesn't change the fact that the cuts are consistent to the level of threat Netherlands are facing right now ... which very low at best.

Let all of us abolish armed forces, world peace and flowers and all that.
The USA and France (because other countries are weak) will protect all of us. Splendid idea.

You can negate that the level of threat is very low in the foreseeable future for Holland

[Poach]

Why global capacity is taken as an indispensable requisite for defence ?

Well, what would've happened if, for example, the UK didn't have the capability to rescue it's civilians from Libya? That required 2 warships, an RAF transport plane landing in a rebel-controlled desert airfield and SAS missions to secure and transport the civilians to safety.

What about piracy off Somalia? Our trade depends on sea-links, and the Suez Canal is vital to those sea-links, the pirates are menacing that trade, that's why we have warships there (though not many, because our own government has made a tradition of shafting the RN first when it comes to defence)

What about the Falklands? We need a global reach to even access those islands, and they've been invaded once already.

The Dutch don't need a global reach, but their ability to respond to any serious incident has been seriously reduced by these cuts. No minehunters means the Dutch Navy couldn't even access a shoreline if it was mined by even makeshift naval mines. Essentially, if anything happens in the world that puts Dutch lives in danger, the Dutch are now heavily reliant on the effort of others to see them through it.

[Menelik_I]

Well, what would've happened if, for example, the UK didn't have the capability to rescue it's civilians from Libya? That required 2 warships, an RAF transport plane landing in a rebel-controlled desert airfield and SAS missions to secure and transport the civilians to safety.

What about piracy off Somalia? Our trade depends on sea-links, and the Suez Canal is vital to those sea-links, the pirates are menacing that trade, that's why we have warships there (though not many, because our own government has made a tradition of shafting the RN first when it comes to defence)

There is something debatable about rescuing civilians.

The Somalia piracy is not an issue of national defence, in fact it is more an Egyptian problem since those guys make big bucks with Suez fees. Plus why would the tax payers foot the bill of maritime security ?

What about the Falklands? We need a global reach to even access those islands, and they've been invaded once already.

Falkland being a British possession it is more than legitimate and required that they have the means to defend it. This is legitimate defence.

The Dutch don't need a global reach, but their ability to respond to any serious incident has been seriously reduced by these cuts. No minehunters means the Dutch Navy couldn't even access a shoreline if it was mined by even makeshift naval mines. Essentially, if anything happens in the world that puts Dutch lives in danger, the Dutch are now heavily reliant on the effort of others to see them through it.

In short if the Dutch decides to switch from National defence to foreign intervention, so before that a force tailored by the threats and territory to defend is appropriate.

[NotYetRegistered]

Well maybe because nobody is going to invade you and there is no longer a Dutch West Indies Empire to defend.

In the case of a remote extremely unlikely Russian invasion of Europe, the Americans will deal with it anyway ... so why bother.

That was the Dutch mentality before WW II.

Guess how it ended.

Let's hope Chavez won't try anything now.

[Menelik_I]

That was the Dutch mentality before WW II.

Guess how it ended.

We are in 2011, there is no Wermatch, Reich Fuhrer and Imperial belligerent Germany ... I love historical that don't match.

ETA:

Chaves and the West Indies Dutch Island, this is a far fetched scenario ..

Colombia could solve that problem for a small fee.

[NotYetRegistered]

We are in 2011, there is no Wermatch, Reich Fuhrer and Imperial belligerent Germany ... I love historical that don't match.

That's not the point. The point is that one day things are going to become bad for us. Though, call me biased since I'd rather see our military remain as it is now. But cuts be cuts..

[Thorn777]

I dont get the Dutch anyway. They where propagating really hard to tighten the belt last year, while the year where they need to be conducted things look allot better on the Germany-Benelux economic axis.

Are the plans still to save 30 billions in total?

EDIT: O ja, we need to buckle up to bail out countries. Funny that Greece still runs that military-budget. They might just sack pinko Holland for the moneyz now.

[Treize]

Let all of us abolish armed forces, world peace and flowers and all that.
The USA and France (because other countries are weak) will protect all of us. Splendid idea.

The NATO argreement says 2% of gdp must be spent. That would be 11 billion, not 7.
But we will get the JSS, to transport our 0 tanks and out 0 cougars, the chinooks are not capable of operating from it so it will be a platform for the few NH-90's that will probably be slashed as well.

Small countries with better militaries:
-Sweden
-Norway (population of 4.5 million, we 16.5)
-Finland
-Switzerland
-Portugal

It is the peoplein charge who don't care and don't know...
Why have mechanised brigades without tanks, that's like having a bra without tits.

[Thorn777]

Remember Holland still has those bicycle brigades. I heard they would even be upgraded with 21 gear Shimano citi-bykes.

[Ahlerich]

Remember Holland still has those bicycle brigades. I heard they would even be upgraded with 21 gear Shimano citi-bykes.

nope, they will be downgraded to unicycles

[Heinz Guderian]

Remember Holland still has those bicycle brigades. I heard they would even be upgraded with 21 gear Shimano citi-bykes.

they wouldnt have had to if you people didnt steal their bikes.

[Jagdpanzer]

Remember Holland still has those bicycle brigades. I heard they would even be upgraded with 21 gear Shimano citi-bykes.

Dude, You got us confused with the Finnish.



And yes, the cuts are bad.

[Basil II the B.S]

The hippiest country of Europe must remain as such.

[Roboute Guilliman]

Menelik, European countries need powerfull armies. The carebear days might end some day. We need to be prepared.