Dutch tank crews take aim at cutbacks

Hundreds of soldiers in a mechanised brigade protested at military spending cuts that will leave the Netherlands with no main battle tanks for the first time since the second world war and could restrict the country’s role in future international military interventions.

The protest on Thursday, part of a wave of opposition among the Dutch military, was aimed at cutbacks announced this month that will reduce defence spending from €8.5bn ($12.6bn) this year to €7.5bn in 2015, eliminating 12,000 of the armed forces’ 59,000 personnel. The air force will lose 19 of its 87 F-16 fighter jets and the navy four of its 10 minesweepers.

“It is like a death in the family,” said an officer, who asked to remain anonymous. “We are still in mourning.”

Like defence cuts elsewhere in Europe, the Dutch move comes as the Libyan conflict is calling into question the European Union’s ability to fulfil its military ambitions.

Other western powers consider the Dutch military small but highly effective. The Dutch Air Force has six F-16s enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya, while Dutch naval frigates conduct anti-piracy patrols off of Somalia.

The Netherlands has taken part in interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Bosnia.

Mark Rutte, prime minister, said the Dutch would continue to play a role in international missions, but the cuts would limit participation to shorter time periods.

The Dutch military was the quickest in Europe to transform itself into a leaner force after the end of the cold war – 45 per cent of the armed forces consists of combat units, compared with only 18 per cent in the German and Belgian militaries. As a result, Dutch defence cuts will have a greater affect on operational abilities than those in Germany and Belgium, says Kees Homan of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael.

At the tank crews’ protest in Oirschot, near Eindhoven, many soldiers echoed that analysis. The base is home to one of the Netherlands’ two tank battalions, both of which are to be scrapped and their 60 Leopard 2 tanks sold.

“The government wants a ‘multiply deployable’ armed forces,” said Colonel Burg Valk, referring to a government strategy document calling for a flexible military suited to various kinds of conflicts. “For that kind of military, tanks are still essential.”

In an early draft of a letter about the cuts, Hans Hillen, defence minister, initially admitted that “the Netherlands’ security threatens to become underinsured”. It was revealed that Mr Hillen later edited out the line.

However, the greatest barriers to Dutch participation in missions may be political, not military.

The previous coalition government fell in 2010 when the Labour party refused to support the occupation of Afghanistan. Mr Rutte’s government needed co-operation from the opposition GreenLeft party to win approval for a small mission to train policemen in Afghanistan.

But concern over capabilities comes partly because the Dutch military has radically downsized.

Defence outlays have shrunk from 2.7 per cent of gross domestic product in 1990 to 1.4 per cent in 2010.