Defense

The Dutch government is implementing a large number of rules, regulations, and law changes at the stroke of midnight on January 1. Below is a summary of changes made in the category Justice, Security and Defense:

Military personnel from the Koninklijke Marechaussee joined local Bahamanian authorities in search and rescue missions this week, the Dutch Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Hundreds of people were still reported missing in the Bahamas weeks after Hurricane Dorian first made landfall there at Category 5 strength on Sept. 1.

“A lot of work has to be done to get this island going again,” said Wiebo, a 40-year-old Sergeant Major in the Marechaussee.

Dutch soldiers are going to provide aid in the Bahamas. The island group was hit hard by Hurricane Dorian. The core tasks of the mission Disaster Relief Bahamas will be to help clean up the massive destruction left by the hurricane and to support aid organizations and the local population where needed, commander Ad van de Sande said to newspaper AD.

The partners of Dutch fighter pilots who were active in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in 2017, were harassed at home during this period. They received repeated, unpleasant phone calls from people with a Russian accent who asked whether their men should not rather leave the area, among other things, the Telegraaf reports.

Military intelligence service MIVD told the newspaper that it is familiar with this practice, but would not say anything further about it. 

The Netherlands entire contingency of 28 Apache helicopters was grounded due to an apparent “defect” in the tail rotor, the Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday. The problem was discovered during maintenance work, according to the ministry’s Defense Helicopter Command.

“Shutting down flight programs is a common measure for this type of observation,” the ministry said in a statement. The nature of the problem and its effects were under investigation and not revealed.

This year the Dutch government is allocating extra money for Defense, climate measures, youth care and education, according to the Spring Memorandum that Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance sent to parliament. The extra money allocated to Defense is far too little, American ambassador Peter Hoekstra said to the Volkskrant.

A 36-year-old Defense employee was arrested early in April for a serious violent crime in Oudenbosch. He is suspected of tricking his way into a young woman's home, tying her up and raping her, the Telegraaf reported on Friday.

The Ministry of Defense suspended a platoon commander from the Royal Military Academy in Breda because he had a number of love affairs with female cadets, the Ministry confirmed to RTL Nieuws after reports in the Telegraaf.

The man involved is a captain in charge of a training platoon at the academy for upcoming officers, according to the broadcaster. The Ministry did not want to say anything more about the man's rank for privacy reasons.

An F16 fighter jet was severely damaged by its own ammunition during a training exercise above Vliehors on Vlieland on January 21st. Two fighter jets were shooting at a target with the on board gun. At least one cartridge hit the side of one of the F16s, parts of the ammunition also ending up in the engine, the Defense Security Inspectorate announced, NU.nl reports.

The F16's on board gun has a 20 mm caliber and shoots around 6 thousand cartridges per minute. No one was injured in the incident. Both fighter jets landes safely at Leeuwarden Air Base.

The police temporarily cordoned off the Grote Markt in Haarlem on Thursday morning after a suspicious package was found in front of the city hall. Investigation revealed that it was just an empty suitcase, ANP reports.

The suitcase was found on the landing of the city hall, which is located on Grote Markt, early in the morning. Defense's explosive disposal service investigated the suitcase and determined that it contained nothing dangerous. The square was released again at around 8:30 a.m.

The police call on witnesses who saw the suitcase being left there to come forward.

A hand grenade was found in a the front yard of a home in Echt on Tuesday morning. Half an hour later, another grenade ws found in the front yard of a home in Holtum. The resident of the Holtum home is a member of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, the police confirmed to NU.nl. The resident of the Echt home does not belong to a motorcycle gang, but a member of such a gang lives on the same street, NU.nl reports.