Dutch army doesn't have the capacity to train all the soldiers its recruiting: report
The Dutch Armed Forces have to grow, and recruitment is going great. In the first eight months of this year, the number of personnel grew by around 5,000 people. The only problem is that, partly due to the war in Ukraine, access to vehicles, weapons, and other training materials was so scarce that some training courses could not be carried out, AD reports from the Defense Status report presented on Budget Day.
The Dutch Armed Forces now stand at 79,323 people. By 2030, the army aims to have 100,000 personnel.
The figures show that civilians and reservists, in particular, signed up this year. As of September 1, there were over 8,500 reservists, almost 2,000 more than at the end of 2022. This growth is mainly due to the launch of the “Service Year” and the Defensity College last year. These projects give young people a taste of what a military career would be like in the hopes of recruiting them permanently.
The Ministry of Defense wants to recruit even more people, particularly professional soldiers. Up to and including August, 1,270 professional soldiers were recruited, but the armed forces still have 1,000 positions to fill by the end of 2025 to meet the target.
How the army will train all these recruits is a great source of concern, according to AD. The report shows that the army is already struggling, partly due to the war in Ukraine. The Nehterlands has donated so much equipment in recent years that it is affecting the military’s training capacity to the extent that parts of the training programs couldn’t be carried out this year.
The Ministry is launching a Delta Plan for Training to resolve these problems quickly. According to AD, the plan will strengthen and digitize training capacity. It will also look into which training components can be outsourced to external parties.
