Massive pay cuts across the board in line with all civil servants, most of their equipment is also heavily mothballed and rarely used. Their navies for example, excluding patrol boat forces, rarely go to sea these days, I doubt the air force is doing as much training as they used to etc. In terms of real hard equipment cuts there have not really been any, their governments are taking the stance (due to the severity of their situation) of just shutting down the military for a bit whilst Britain, the Dutch and co are reducing the size of their militaries to make sure they maintain fully operational for the time being.
Heavily mothballed??? you joking me?
Just for the record its true that the UK and the Netherlands made some real painfull cuts and i am sure there will be more very painfull cuts to come.
But mothballed? No way for example the Netherlands did scrap their:
60 Leo2A4/6 Tanks
17 Cougar helicopters
4 Almaar-class minehunters
6 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers
19 F-16's
2 Ground Installation Defence platoons
4 Patriot Installations
Unknown number of: Medium-Range Antitank systems (Used on Fennek vehicles)
Further they are going to cut down in administration related departments and also they are going to cut down in the civil part of the army.
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee paramilitary police will cancel the purchase of the vessel intended for use in the Zeeland waters. As a result of the reduction of the armed forces, the RNLM police tasks for the armed forces will also be reduced.
According to the Dutch Ministry of Defence, cutbacks amounting to 617.5 million Euros will be made in administration and management, support and operational logistics. The staffs will be reduced by 30 percent, and administrative and management relations and processes will be simplified. The number of top-level positions will be reduced from 119 to 80. One thousand civilian service cars will go, and VIP transport will be scaled down.
The Dutch government is reducing spending by 18 billion Euros in the wake of the recession, of which 635 million Euros must be saved by the Ministry of Defence. Additionally, the military must save another 175 million Euros, and another 150 million Euros in the longer term.
Anyway thats NOT what i call mothballed.
Also i would like to point out that both the UK and NL are very active and use their equipment very often (For example NL just returned from Afghanistan where they used first class assets in pretty large numbers, this includes heavy air support F-16's and apaches)
The dutch Navy is continuously busy with anti pirate missions and patrols.
This applies for the UK as well.
And in regards of training i can tell you this much (everyone here can) that both the NL and UK forces are training their forces to the max on a regular basis.
So i am not sure where you got the term Mothballed from but this sure as hell does not apply to UK, NL or any west EU nation.
In regards of the current cuts and possible future cuts i cannot say much about the UK as i do not life there however the dutch do not need to cut down their army as it is very well funded/trained and equipped but our government in all its wisdom likes to make serious mistakes by cutting in the wrong sections thus trowing away years of traditions and abilities, which is a shame as the Netherlands does have a very skilled & advanced and proud & professional army.
Cheers
