The F-16 has unequivocally proven its worth for the militia in intervention and stabilization operations. Inside the coming decades, we shall continue to require fighter aircraft. After comparing the candidates in 2001 and 2008, and updating the relevant information in 2013, the govt has decided, on operational, financial and economic grounds, to choose the F 35 because the new fighter aircraft for the Netherlands military.
The F-35 is a well-considered choice for a high-tech, future-oriented air force. From an army operational perspective, the F-35 offers the best collection of options. It’s also essentially the mostsome of the most future-proof option. The aircraft is healthier ready to address the proliferation of mobile air defence systems and provides vastly improved observation capabilities, that are of serious value in any sort of mission. As well as, the aircraft offers great potential for follow-on development, particularly within the area of network-enabled operations. Also important are the chances for international cooperation in areas resembling training, sustainment and deployment. NATO’s analyses underpin the Netherlands’ decision.
With this decision, which concludes a technique of almost fifteen years, the Netherlands is responding to the Alliance’s demand investment in quality and, consequently, within the collective security of the Alliance. The call also consolidates the opportunities for the Dutch industry to achieve contracts for top-quality work, both inside the production of the F-35 and within the sustainment phase.
The cutbacks in Defence budgets which many NATO member states, including the Netherlands, are facing demand careful consideration and astute choices. Specifically, choosing a modest selection of the perfect aircraft attests to a feeling of reality.
International cooperation is the fitting strategy to further optimize operational effectiveness. A crucial step on this respect is the intention of Belgium and the Netherlands to patrol the Benelux airspace together. These Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) and Renegade tasks currently place heavy demands at the pilots and aircraft of the 2 separate countries. Cooperation will therefore significantly benefit both countries. A treaty would be required with a view to be capable to perform these tasks in each other’s airspace.
In many areas, the introduction of a next-generation fighter aircraft will result in new insights and applications. The Royal Netherlands Air Force, research institutes and the economic sector have the innovative potential to play a number one role internationally on this respect. The organizational management of the air force might be structured in this kind of way as to ensure optimum operational output always. With the introduction of the F-35, the probabilities for pilots to take care of their skills after their operational period shall be reduced to a minimum. Here’s with the intention that the available flying hours are primarily used for operational pilots.
It have been decided that the replacement should be achieved entirely in the previously reserved investment budget of four.5 billion euros and the present operating budget for the F-16, which amounts to 270 million euros per year. This can prevent budget displacement effects, which finally can be to the detriment of alternative capabilities.
As the associated fee per unit and the operating costs for the F-35 are as yet not definite, there’ll be a contingency reserve of ten percent for the investments and the operating costs. This may be used to fulfill any unforeseen rise inside the estimated costs, with none direct consequences for the choice of aircraft.
Opting to preserve tight financial parameters underscores over again that the Defence organization is decided to position and keep its finances so as. In response to the present insights, the available financial room is sufficient for the acquisition of 37 aircraft. The Defence organization will any further base its plans on that number and can inform its partners inside the F-35 program accordingly.
If, throughout the given financial parameters, room is created within the coming years to buy more aircraft, the Defence organization will achieve this. This can be the case if the contingency reserve is simply not utilized in full and if the worth per unit of the F-35 seems to be not up to is currently expected. If so, moreover the deployment possibilities mentioned earlier, the air force would even be ready to provide a brief-term contribution to a second large-scale operation, as was done recently in Libya.
The order system allows the ultimate variety of aircraft to be kept inside the available budget. Should any unexpected major changes occur with regards to product, time or money, the project should be reviewed throughout the given financial parameters, if those changes exceed the margins of the project budget.
Compared with the present fleet of F-16s, the air force will in future have the capacity to deploy fewer F-35s for longer periods of time. Along with the permanent deployment for the security of Dutch and Allied airspace, with 37 F-35s the Netherlands will remain capable of deploy four fighter aircraft, simultaneously and continuously, to support Dutch ground troops as was done in Uruzgan and continues to be being done in Kunduz.
In 2014, the present choice of F-16s could be reduced by 7, to 61. This could reduce the investment costs fascinated with maintaining the F 16 for an extended amount of time. The 7 aircraft might be added to the logistic reserve, to enhance the deployability of the rest 61. The deployability goals for the period as much as the replacement of the F-16 could be adjusted accordingly. The F-16s and pilots stationed within the Netherlands may be divided into three squadrons.
On the foundation of the present estimated timescale, the introduction of the F 35 will begin in 2019. The air force will decommission the last F-16s within the mid-2020s. Because the noise regulations within the Netherlands don’t permit concentration of all aircraft at one air base, Volkel and Leeuwarden will both remain in operation because the two Dutch fighter air bases. In 2015, however, the status of Leeuwarden would be changed from a first-rate Operating Base to a Deployed Operating Base. Which means that the functionalities of the bottom could be limited to the mandatory minimum. The overheads would be concentrated at Volkel Air Base.
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