DEN HAAG – The Netherlands is purchasing eight or nine additional F-35A jet fighters. “These will be on top of the 37 that the previous cabinet had already decided on. And at the next cabinet, the defence budget will have to be increased again. We are also obliged to do so within NATO.”

That’s what Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld said in an interview with Trouw. “Within NATO, we still dangle at the bottom in terms of expenditure. So we will have to take extra steps. Next year we will have a review of the defence bill. That should be ready around the spring 2020 paper”, according to the minister.

According to Defence Minister Bijleveld, the exact number of F-35 aircraft that will be purchased depends on the exchange rate of the dollar at the time of purchase. They are paid out of the one and a half billion euros that the Cabinet earmarked for the armed forces.

Photo Rob Vogelaar