Netherlands readies its army for large-scale conflict

The Netherlands will buy more CV90 infantry fighting vehicles, additional bridge-laying tanks, a replacement for its unreliable Kodiak combat engineer vehicle, and new tracked support and heavy recovery vehicles from Germany’s FFG, Dutch State Secretary for Defense Derk Boswijk told parliament in a letter on Oct. 26, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said.

The ministry did not disclose how many vehicles it will buy, what the package will cost, or when deliveries will begin, but said the equipment will mainly go to the Royal Netherlands Army’s heavy and medium infantry brigades as the army prepares for a possible large-scale conflict.

The new CV90s will equip an armored infantry battalion that has yet to be formed and will be based at the Nassau-Dietz Barracks in Budel, in the south of the country. The Netherlands is buying them through a joint program led by Sweden, home of CV90 maker BAE Systems Hägglunds, together with Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Norway, which the ministry said will speed up deliveries. The Dutch army already operates 122 CV90s, which are going through a mid-life upgrade valued at about $500 million.

The ministry said the army’s current breaching vehicle, the Leopard 2-based Kodiak, is outdated and not protected well enough against current and future threats, and that breakdowns and failures have limited how often it can be used. Its replacement will need to clear heavy defensive lines, minefields, walls and other obstacles so tanks and infantry can push through, a task that proved costly for both sides in Ukraine, where dense minefields stalled armored assaults. The ministry did not name the replacement.

The Netherlands is also buying more bridge-laying tanks, which carry folding bridges to span rivers and other gaps, and will probably join an existing German contract to get them.

From FFG Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft, the Dutch army will receive the Armoured Combat Support Vehicle, or ACSV, a tracked support vehicle already used by the Norwegian army, in several versions including an ambulance, command post, minelayer and driver training vehicle. FFG will also supply the Wisent 2, a heavy armored recovery vehicle built on the Leopard 2 chassis that can tow and lift damaged or stranded tanks and armored vehicles. The army currently has 25 older Bergepanzer 3 recovery vehicles, a fleet the ministry has said is too small for the planned expansion of its armored forces, which includes newly ordered Leopard 2A8 tanks, Defence24 reported in March.

Dutch companies will take a large share of the work. Van Halteren Technologies will assemble the ACSV and the Wisent 2 recovery vehicles in the Netherlands and maintain them, while KONI Nederland and Neways Electronics will supply parts and Avient Protective Materials will provide high-strength fibers for the ACSV’s ballistic protection.