Dutch Government,
THE HAGUE: The cabinet sees no reason to reconsider its preference for the American Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft as the successor to the F-16. Nor would the taxpayer be any better off if the Netherlands was no longer participating in the development of the JSF and instead bought the aircraft 'off the shelf.'
These are the main conclusions of the fourth annual report on the replacement of the armed forces' F-16 fleet. State Secretaries Kees van der Knaap (Defence) and Karien van Gennip (Economic affairs) sent the report to the Lower House on Friday.
The cabinet will decide at end-2006 whether the Netherlands will take part in the next stage of the development of the JSF. The first agreement on the Netherlands' participation in the JSF development was signed in 2002. A 'co-financing agreement was signed with Dutch industry, under which companies would later have to make a contribution to the State on the sales they generated from JSF contracts.
Modernisation of the F-16 offers “no answer to future needs” of the Netherlands' armed forces, according to the annual evaluation. The army is rejecting the alternative of unmanned aircraft because the time for these is far from ripe, and their costs appear to be underestimated. Military experts even term alternatives such as the Eurofighter and the French Rafale “not realistic,” writes Van der Knaap.
Van der Knaap believes the JSF as successor to the F-16 will cost an estimated sum of about 4.5 billion euros, provisionally assuming the Dutch need for 85 aircraft. The intention is to replace the F-16 in the period between 2010 and 2020. The Netherlands will likely order a first test aircraft next year and a second, a year later.
