The Royal Netherlands Army Artillery provides artillery support for the

Royal Netherlands Army The Royal Netherlands Army ( nl, Koninklijke Landmacht) is the land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised – making the Dutc ...

. It is divided into three corps, undertaking two roles: Korps Veldartillerie -

Field Artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the early 20t ...

and Korps Rijdende Artillerie -

Horse Artillery Horse artillery was a type of light, fast-moving, and fast-firing artillery which provided highly mobile fire support, especially to cavalry units. Horse artillery units existed in armies in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, from the early 17th to t ...

. These two corps undertake the field artillery role. They are equipped primarily with the

PzH2000 The Panzerhaubitze 2000 ("tank howitzer 2000"), () abbreviated PzH 2000, is a German 155 mm self-propelled howitzer developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rheinmetall in the 1980s and 1990s for the German Army. It is capable of a very hig ...

and were equipped with the

M109 howitzer The M109 is an American 155 mm turreted self-propelled howitzer, first introduced in the early 1960s to replace the M44. It has been upgraded a number of times, most recently to the M109A7. The M109 family is the most common Western indirect-fi ...

. Until 2013, one regiment retained the traditions of the Veldartillerie and one of the Rijdende Artillerie, with one assigned to each of the army's mechanised brigades. In 2013, following a series of defence cuts, the two artillery regiments were amalgamated into a single unit called the

Fire Support Command The Fire Support Command (Dutch: ''Vuursteun Commando, VustCo'') is the artillery arm of the Royal Netherlands Army. The command consists of 41 Artillery Battalion, a staff, the Fire Support School and the artillery training grounds and is part of ...

''(VuursteunCommando)'', with three fire support batteries and an HQ battery, of which two of the fire support batteries are Veldartillerie and one, together with the HQ is Rijdende Artillerie.

Korps Luchtdoelartillerie

The third corps is Korps Luchtdoelartillerie -

Air Defence Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

Artillery. It undertakes the

air defence Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

role. Three individual batteries were equipped with

Stinger A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal. An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of v ...

man-portable air defence missiles and the

Cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

armoured air defence vehicle (a variation of the

Leopard 1 The Leopard 1 (also styled Leopard I, before the Leopard 2 simply known as Leopard) is a main battle tank designed and produced by Porsche in West Germany that first entered service in 1965. Developed in an era when HEAT warheads were thought ...

) and are assigned to the three mechanised brigades. The rest of the unit is assigned to provide air defence for other vital areas. Korps Luchtdoelartillerie consists of the Air Defence Command (Commando Luchtdoelartillerie). 11 Air Defense Company (Air Assault) Samarinda (part of

11 Luchtmobiele Brigade The 11 Air Assault Brigade ( nl, 11 Luchtmobiele Brigade) is the rapid light infantry brigade of the Royal Netherlands Army, focused on conducting air assault operations. Troops of the brigade are qualified to wear the maroon beret upon completion ...

) is considered part of the Air Defense Artillery Regiment, but is an independent Air Defense Company and part of the infantry

Regiment Van Heutsz The Regiment van Heutsz is a line infantry regiment of the Royal Netherlands Army. The regiment was named after J.B. van Heutsz, a former Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, and was formed on July 1, 1950. It is notable for its service as ...

. It is composed mostly of infantry. To avoid confusion, it was named a company rather than a battery. As of 2007 the Air Defence Command (Colua) is located at e Peel Air Baseand equipped with the

NASAMS 2 NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, also known as the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) is a distributed and networked short- to medium-range ground-based air defense system developed by Kongsberg Defence & Ae ...

Army Ground Based Air Defense Systems (Army GBADS). The regiment consists of a Joint Air Defense Center, a Staff battery, 11th Air Defense battery, 13th Air Defense battery, an instruction and training battery and the Joint Air Defense School. Each of the two Air Defense batteries consists of a staff platoon, three Stinger Weapon Platform platoons and a NASAMS 2 Fire Unit (FU). The SWP are available in two variants: The SWP ennekis a four wheeled armored vehicle with the selsanready to fire a Stinger surface-to-air missile launcher. The Mercedes Benz G290GD four-wheel drive light transport vehicle, with a Dual Mounted Stinger (DMS) on a tripod, offers two Stingers ready to fire. By integrating the Low Level Air Picture (LLAP) with both VSHORAD-missiles systems into the wireless GBADS-network, which is JTIDS (Joint Tactical Information Distribution System) capable, they can bring the Recognized Air Picture (RAP) to the SWPs. This is a unique capacity and a powerful attribute to NATINEADS (NATO INtegrated and Extended Air Defense System). Besides the SWPs the Air Defense batteries have a NASAMS II (Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System II) Fire Unit (FU). Each FU consist of an FDC (Fire Distribution Centre), a MPQ-64 Sentinel radar and 3 Launchers with 6 AIM-120B (SL)AMRAAM's ((Surface Launched) Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile) each. The sensor capacity of the GBADS-network consists, besides the MPQ-64 and LLAPI (LLAP Interface), of five

TRML The TRML (german: Telefunken Radar Mobil Luftraumüberwachung, or "Telefunken mobile airspace surveilance radar") is a family of air defense radars first developed by Telefunken and currently produced by Hensoldt. It is a development of the ear ...

(Telefunken Radar Mobil Luftraumuberwachung) radars. These Medium range, modular, highly reliable, countermeasures-resistant, 3D, C-band, self-contained, mobile radar systems are capable of detecting a real target with a small RCS ( adar Cross Section like

Cruise Missiles A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead ...

and U(C)AV's (Unmanned Aerial (Combat) Vehicle's), even at low attitudes.

Joint Air Defense command

On September 23, 2009 it was announced by the Commander

Royal Netherlands Army Commander Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

, Commander Peter van Uhm, that all ground based air defense units, including the Air Force’s Guided Weapons Group (GGW), would be merged into a single Joint Air Defense Command at De Peel Air Base.

References

{{Dutch Regiments Army units and formations of the Netherlands Artillery administrative corps