Army Days 2009 

Words and photography Remco Donselaar, additional photographs Michael van der Mee

You are suitable, aren't you? This slogan is representing the main theme of the Royal Netherlands Army Days 2009. The fifth edition was held at The Bernard Kazerne (Barracks) and military training ground 'The Vlasakkers' at June 6 and 7. In co-operation with the City of Amersfoort, celebrating its 750th anniversary this year, the general public was given an opportunity to meet the army and take a closer look to the operations it performs in Afghanistan right now.

Therefore a large display area was created at the Vlasakkers, including an improvised look a like Afghanistan village. Since the start of the mission in Afghanistan main threat are 'improvised explosive device' hidden on the roads. First scenario showed a convoy, consisting of different vehicles, attending a village to create confidence between the locals and the forces. Before getting to this village the road must be clear of these explosives by removing and taking them for a closer look or by just blow them up, last option was shown in the scenario with a big bang. While attending the village the troops went under fire by some Taliban. By calling in air support the Taliban were simply blown away by an F-16. It looked realistic enough to get a good impression of what's going on in Afghanistan.

Main scenario was performed by a combined action of the Defense Helicopter Commando and the 11th Air mobility brigade, Charlie Tiger company. To show the good relationship between the German Army and Royal Netherlands Army, two German B0105 helicopters completed the party.

The scenario given started with some suspect activities by an Afghanistan local riding a bike. This man was observed by a brand new UAV, called the Aladdin and it seemed he was creating one of the improvised explosive devices shown in the first scenario. It was clear this suspect had to be captured in order to get some more information about it's activities and role inside the Taliban organization.

At this point a complete operation was setup to create a secure environment around the village and to capture the suspect. Flown in by the German Bo105's some explorers had to create a secured area to make it possible for the Cougar helicopter to drop some special troops on top of the house were the suspect was hiding. To access the house the door had to be forced open by explosives.

Curious locals were coming closer to the house and extra troops were necessary in order to keep the locals on a secure distance. After the suspect was blindfolded a Lynx helicopter came in to abduct and hand him over to the allied troops. A so called wounded soldier was taken away by a Cougar and at this point the scenario ended.

Last scenario was a classic battlefield operation in order to take over enemy territory. A lot of weapon systems were shown including the heavy armoured artillery PZH2000 and the main battle tank Leopard 2A6.

The Royal Netherlands Army is currently undergoing a modernisation of it's armoured vehicles. The Army Days were a good opportunity to present them to the general public. First one was the Bushmaster. This Australian developed 4x4 was bought as a replacement for the Patria in 2006. It worked out the Patria wasn't resistant enough for high temperatures and dust but more important it didn't provide a sufficient protection against improvised explosive devices. The Australian Army, active in Afghanistan side by side with the Dutch, had good expieriences with the Bushmaster in the given conditions. To have the Bushmaster available with the start of the mission in Afghanistan, they were supplied from those already delivered to the Australian Army.

For many years the YPR was the main armoured vehicle in many versions in the Royal Netherlands Army. Main task was supporting the infantery side by side with the Leopard 2 combat tank. It however wasn't fast enough to come after the Leopard and mission requirements were changing over the last decade. As a replacement 2 new systems are selected, the CV90 and the Boxer.

The CV90 is an Infantery Fighting Vehicle developed on requirement of the Swedish Armed Forces in the 80s and is a product of BAE Systems Land Systems Hagglunds and Saab Bofors Dynamics. The contract for the Dutch version was  signed in 2004, supplied with a Bushmaster III 35/50 cannon it has a transport capacity of 7 infanterists. Operational delivery of the first five examples took place in December 2008 and will continue with a total number of 184 until 2011.

Developed by a German/Dutch consortium the Boxer is a modular based 8x8 wheeled armoured vehicle. On the same chassis 3 different units can be swapped with different purposes; personal carrier, command post and medical transport. In June 2006, the Royal Netherlands Army ordered a total of 200 vehicles with the first one to be delivered in 2011.