Dutch army to have its own tank unit for the first time in 10 years, media reports

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — Polish Soldiers operate a Leopard 2 tank during a multinational training scenario in support of NATO's enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group Poland in Bemowo Piskie, Poland, Feb. 6, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Timothy Hamlin via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch army will have its own tank unit for the first time in more than 10 years, local media reported on Tuesday, quoting some extracts from a defence white paper that the government will unveil on Thursday.

The set up of this unit, which will help the Netherlands comply with the NATO target of spending at least 2% of its GDP on defence, will cost between 260 million and 315 million euros ($347.82 million) per year, the NRC Handelsblad reported.

That sum will, amongst others, cover the purchasing costs of new tanks, likely to be the Leopard 2, built by German tank maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, which has been used by the Dutch land army since 40 years.

($1 = 0.9056 euros)



(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)