The Ministry of Defense will be purchasing more than €1.5 billion worth of ammunition in the coming years, including both large items such as rockets and precision-guided artillery shells and conventional ammunition. The latter group includes, for example, cartridges for pistols and machine guns. This is what State Secretary Christophe van der Maat writes to the House of Representatives today.
Ammunition was also purchased last year. It then concerned an accelerated order with a value of approximately half a billion euros. The new investment is for the years 2025-2031. Replenishment of the ammunition stock is necessary to be able to carry out the first main task of Defense: national and allied defense. All new types of ammunition to be acquired are already being used within the armed forces.
Growth of all ammunition stocks contributes to increasing the deployability of the armed forces and to Dutch and European security. As a result, the Defense organization can make a better contribution to its own and allied defenses and can also maintain this for longer.
In the field of capital ammunition, the Ministry of Defense buys air defense ammunition for the frigates and amphibious and support ships, for example. It also concerns artillery and mortar shells, missiles for the Patriot system and the new ground-based air defense capabilities (missiles for short and medium range). For the Apache combat helicopter, the Ministry of Defense stocks cannon ammunition and guided missiles. The F-35 combat aircraft will receive additional precision-guided bombs and air-to-air missiles.
Procurement is through current (framework) contracts and the Foreign Military Sales United States process. Multinational orders are also placed through NATO Supply and Procurement Agency (NSPA). NATO’s
Conventional ammunition includes anti-tank missiles for combat units of the Army and the Marine Corps. Small caliber ammunition for rifles and machine guns is also purchased, as well as hand grenades. Defense is stocking up on explosives and counter-mobility ammunition for combat engineers. New grenades will be introduced for the naval guns of the frigates, while the Ministry of Defense will equip the self-protection systems of armored vehicles, ships and aircraft with new pyrotechnics (multispectral smoke grenades, chaff and flares).