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Tuesday, 16 December 2014 - 10:46
First Dutch JSF jets to arrive in 2019
The first JSF jets will arrive in the Netherlands in 2019, the Cabinet announced last night in a letter regarding the purchase to the Second Chamber. From 2019 the Netherlands will buy eight jets each year, eventually amounting to a total of 37 jets.
The first JSF jets will be stationed in Leeuwarden. Later there will also be jets in Volkel. Many of these fighter jets are needed for training and to monitor the Dutch airspace. According to the Cabinet, only four jets will therefore be used for military missions abroad.
The JSF is the successor of the F-16. The first F-16 were purchased in the late 70's. The total acquisition cost of the jets is 4.6 billion euros. The operation costs will amount to a maximum of 285 million euros per year.
The Cabinet also writes that the JSF's noise level is acceptable. That was an important point for the PvdA. The noise pollution will be limited by the jets going to Volkel to allow night flights elsewhere. There will be a new noise zone in Volkel that allows less noise.
The governing coalition previously agreed to the purchase of new aircraft for the Royal Air Force, but it was a difficult decision for the PvdA. According to the Cabinet, this letter responded to the concerns of the party.
The Dutch industry says that it received more than 1 billion euros of orders to help build the JSF. The government expects that the orders for Dutch industry will increase to 9 billion euros.