Chairman Niels van Woensel of the Dutch Officers Association (NOV) signals frustrations among his supporters because the guns are also desperately needed to quickly increase the firepower of our army. Minister Ollongren has not yet formally decided on the plan, she does not yet have the military advice stating what the consequences of the donation would be. That is not yet ready, confirms a spokesperson for the department.
German made
The army has 24 deployable Panzerhaubsitze 2000 (PZH 2000) armored howitzers; advanced German-made artillery pieces. There are still 29 in depot. These are from an older, technically less high-quality version. The guns – a unit price of more than seven million euros in 2002 – ended up there immediately after delivery because there was no money, personnel or need to deploy them operationally.
According to Van Woensel, the intention is to quickly prepare extra PZH 2000s for deployment with the extra money for Defense that will be available during this cabinet term. It would concern twelve pieces of artillery that should be operational in 2023 at 13 and 43 Mechanized Brigade. The implementation of that plan now appears to be under pressure.
Good resource
“I understand that Ukraine needs to be supported, but at the same time we are expected to get our armed forces in order and these armored howitzers are a good tool for that,” said the NOV chairman.
He is supported by lieutenant general Ton van Loon. The gunner views the intended giving away of guns with mixed emotions. “On the one hand, it is good to help Ukraine. Especially with a weapon system like this, which is perhaps the best available,” says the former top soldier. “But it is not the case that we as the Netherlands itself are very generous with our stuff. If you want to do this, you should immediately have a good story about how you are going to strengthen Dutch fire support. Do we buy back new armored howitzers, or some other system?” According to sources within the army, the internal frustrations are not only due to the fact that our artillery, according to NATO, is also going to lose weapons. Defense will not say how many, but according to insiders it concerns a handful.
big turn
The pain is also in the fact that it takes a month for each cannon to give them a major overhaul. Then they have to be shot.
The personnel who will do this cannot simultaneously work on capacity expansion in their own country. In addition, those involved are concerned about the advanced armored howitzers falling into Russian hands. “If that happens, they will be in pieces in Russia a few days later and the Russians can copy them,” said one person involved.
Union leader Van Woensel points out that the minister now seems to be mainly interested in Ukraine. He calls on her to also keep an eye on domestic interests.
Balance of interests
“You can expect The Hague to make a broader assessment of interests. As it also happens in Germany. There, the Chancellor is reluctant to give away heavy weapons because, like our country, they have little of them.”
Van Woensel continues: „In such a consideration you also have to consider that these are weapons that require months of training. Ukraine is now asking to send everything there is, logically from their perspective, but in reality what use are these pieces to them? And how wise have you in the Netherlands been if such an artillery piece is knocked out within a day?”