The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army (C-LAS,

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''Commandant Landstrijdkrachten'') is the executive commander of 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 ...

and reports directly to the

Chief of Defence The chief of defence (or head of defence) is the highest ranked commissioned officer of a nation's armed forces. The acronym CHOD is in common use within NATO and the European Union as a generic term for the highest national military position withi ...

. The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is statutorily a

three-star general Military star ranking is military terminology, used to describe general and flag officers. Within NATO's armed forces, the stars are equal to OF-6–10. Star ranking One–star A one–star rank is usually the lowest ranking general or flag ...

. The current C-LAS is Air Defense Artillery

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Martin Wijnen Martin Wijnen (born 1966) is a Dutch Lieutenant-general (RNLA Engineers). He was the Commander of 43 Mechanized Brigade and is now the Vice Chief of defence. Biography After graduating from the Royal Military Academy in civil engineering, ...

History of the C-LAS

The position of C-LAS was created on 5 September 2005 as part of a thorough reorganization within the

Dutch Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence ( nl, Ministerie van Defensie; MinDef) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for the armed forces of the Netherlands and Veterans Affairs. The Ministry was created in 1813 as the "Ministry of War" and in 1928 was combined ...

in which the staffs (military and civilian) were reduced in size and an entire organizational layer was dropped. Before September 2005 the commanding officer of the Army was the Bevelhebber der Landstrijdkrachten (abbreviated BLS; the term also translates into English as Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army).

Officeholders

Commanders of the Royal Netherlands Army (''Bevelhebber der Landstrijdkrachten'')

* 1954 - 1957 General

Ben Hasselman General Benjamin Richard Pieter Frans Hasselman (14 March 1898 – 2 March 1984) was an officer of the Royal Netherlands Army and chairman of the NATO Military Committee The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Military Committee (NATO MC) is the ...

* 1957 - 1962 Lieutenant General G.J. Le Fèvre de Montigny * 1962 - 1963 Lieutenant General A.V. van den Wall Bake * 1964 - 1968 Lieutenant General

Frans van der Veen Franciscus Christian van der Veen (25 March 1919 – 4 May 1975) was a Dutch football forward who played for the Netherlands in the 1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial internat ...

* 1968 - 1971 Lieutenant General Willem van Rijn * 1972 - 1973 Lieutenant General Gerrit IJsselstein * 1973 - 1977 Lieutenant General Jan van der Slikke * 1977 - 1980 Lieutenant General Cor de Jager * 1980 - 1985 Lieutenant General Han Roos * 1985 - 1988 Lieutenant General Peter Graaff * 1988 - 1992 Lieutenant General Rien Wilmink * 1992 - 1996 Lieutenant General Hans Couzy * 1996 - 2001 Lieutenant General

Maarten Schouten Maarten (IPA: �maːrtə(n) is a Dutch language male given name. It is a cognate to and the standardized Dutch form of Martin, as in for example Sint Maarten (named after Martin of Tours). People with the name * Geert-Maarten Mol, Dutch One Da ...

* 2001 - 2002 Lieutenant General Ad van Baal * 2002 - 2005 Lieutenant General Marcel Urlings

Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army

;

Deputy Commanders

*Major General

Lex Oostendorp Lex or LEX may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lex'', a daily featured column in the ''Financial Times'' Games * Lex, the mascot of the word-forming puzzle video game ''Bookworm'' * Lex, the protagonist of the word-forming puzzle video ga ...

(5 September 2005 – 25 November 2007) *Major General

Marcel van den Broek Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian ...

(26 November 2007 – March 2010) *Major General

Mart de Kruif Mart de Kruif MSM is a three-star general in the Royal Netherlands Army and served as its executive commander. Biography Mart De Kruif received his military education at the Royal Military Academy in Breda. Later he was also educated at the ...

(March 2010 – October 2011) *Major General

Marc van Uhm General Marc van Uhm is a two-star general in the Royal Netherlands Army and served as its deputy commander. Biography Van Uhm was born in 1958, in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, the son of a baker, his brother being general Peter van Uhm. Van Uh ...

(October 2011 – January 2016) *Major General

(January 2016 – July 2017) *Major General Kees Matthijssen (July 2017 – October 2019) *Major General Rob Jeulink (October 2019 - present)

References

External links

Official website at the Dutch Ministry of Defence
{{Chief of the army by country Royal Netherlands Army

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

*C Military ranks of the Royal Netherlands Army