WASHINGTON—The Netherlands wants in on the U.S. Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft program to boost their own fleet of F-35 fighter jets. The Dutch Defense Ministry inked a letter of intent to cooperate in the program Thursday.
The Netherlands also signed a separate agreement with General Atomics as part of a broader effort to boost the country’s defenses and drone tech.
“We think that this is a unique point in time and it reinforces the partnership we have with the U.S. And I think it also makes the world a lot safer if in the near future we can actually also operate CCA type of aircraft in the European theater,” Gijs Tuinman, Dutch State Secretary for Defense, told reporters Thursday after announcing the agreement at the Dutch embassy’s defense industry event.
The country has partnered with the U.S. on the F-16 and F-35, which makes a CCA investment a natural next step that help proliferate the tech across Europe, Tuinman said, noting the Netherlands needs roughly equal numbers manned, unmanned, and attritable systems for its defenses.
“The Netherlands is like the jumping pad for the United States to get into Europe. So we have always [had a] strong or transatlantic relationship. That’s my message here too: to sign the deal, but also to express that we understand the message from the U.S…that the Netherlands and Europe should shift the burden a bit” by increasing defense spending, Tuinman said.
The agreement allows the Netherlands access to the CCA program as it develops, to share data, and to provide input for requirements for use in Europe.
The Netherlands also penned an agreement with General Atomics to develop new small unmanned aircraft systems for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance that are affordable and can hold a variety of payloads.
Tuinman said the drone industry lacks systems that can “penetrate [anti-access/area-denial] bubbles and have a diverse set of ISR and strike capabilities.”
General Atomics will work with Netherlands-based VDL Defentec to engineer and produce the new systems.
The move comes months after General Atomics and fellow CCA-maker Anduril began pitching tailorable versions of the platform—and co-production—to European countries at the Paris Air Show this summer.
The Dutch partnership aims to address immediate security threats as Russia’s war on Ukraine persists and drone activity increases across Europe. Drones recently disrupted communications during a Dutch military exercise in Poland.
“Putin is testing us in every possible way,” Tuinman said. “Hybrid attacks are already taking place across Europe…including my own country. And over the past weeks, various locations in Europe have been plagued by large amounts of mysterious drones testing the strength of our response, resilience, and most of all our alliance.”
Teaming with General Atomics, and other U.S. defense companies, also creates an opportunity to bolster defense industries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Birgitta Tazelaar, the Dutch ambassador to the U.S., said Thursday during opening remarks at the embassy’s annual defense industry event.
Spending more on defense “means that we’re going to build up a European defense industry, but it also means that we’re going to work very well together with our American partners in doing so. And this is crucial. Look at our adversaries and our competitors. They are doing the same, and it is extremely important to keep our strategic advantage by working together and integrating our industrial bases to the extent that we both benefit,” Tazelaar said.
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