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Royal Netherlands Air Force

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Logo of the Royal Netherlands Air Force
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Logo of the Royal Netherlands Air Force

Roundel of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
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Roundel of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

F-16 Serial Number J-229 painted in 2004 to celebrate 25 years service of the F-16 in Dutch service
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F-16 Serial Number J-229 painted in 2004 to celebrate 25 years service of the F-16 in Dutch service

The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF), Dutch Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu), is the aviation branch of the Netherlands defence forces. Its ancestor, Luchtvaartafdeling of the Dutch Army was founded on July 1, 1913 and originally consisted of just 4 pilots. In September 2005 air force general Dick Berlijn was appointed as the first commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Netherlands.

Contents

Current Equipment

The aircraft deployed include:

Fighters

Transport/refuelling Attack helicopters Transport helicopters Trainers The Dutch airforce is also responsible for the deployment of the Ground Based Air Defense systems, including:

Airbases and Squadrons

Large Main Operating Bases (MOB's)

Tactical Helicopter Groups (THG) and Airbases

Other airbases

Guided Weapons base

Control station

Rank Structure

The officer ranks of the Royal Netherlands Air Force is given below:

|- |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" !NATO Code||OF-10||OF-9||OF-8||OF-7||OF-6||OF-5||OF-4||OF-3||OF-2||colspan=2|OF-1||OF-D-||Student Officer |- |- |align="center" rowspan=2| Netherlands
() |align="center"| No equivalent |align="center"|

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|align="center"| No equivalent |align="center"| |- |align="center"| |align="center"| Generaal |align="center"| Luitenant-generaal |align="center"| Generaal-majoor |align="center"| Commodore |align="center"| Kolonel |align="center"| Luitenant-kolonel |align="center"| Majoor |align="center"| Kapitein |align="center"| Eerste-luitenant ||
Tweede-luitenant Vaandrig
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Future developments

The F-16 is likely to be replaced in the future by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It is favoured over the Eurofighter, Rafale, F/A-18E/F, F-16E/F and Saab Gripen. It must be noted though that no formal decision has been taken on the replacement. The Dutch government so far has only participated in the SDD-phase (System Development and Demonstration phase) of the JSF-project. A future government may decide in favour of the Eurofighter, the Rafale or any other candidate.

The (K)DC-10 aircraft were updated in 2005 by Fokker Services (part of Stork Aerospace, located near Woensdrecht airbase). Another DC-10 will bring the total amount of these aircraft in service with the RNLAF to three, but the latest addition to the airfleet has yet to undergo one final update. It is currently being fitted with a glass cockpit. Two F-60s will be sold. The RNLAF is interested in buying the C-17, which if bought will be stationed on Eindhoven airbase where all the airforce's fixed wing transport planes are stationed.

External links

General

References


 
Military of the Netherlands 
Royal Netherlands Army | 
Royal Netherlands Navy | 25px Royal Netherlands Air Force | 
Royal Constabulary

 

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