Royal Netherlands Army Artillery
The artillery of the Royal Netherlands Army is divided into three separate corps, undertaking two separate artillery functions:
- Korps Veldartillerie - Field Artillery
- Korps Rijdende Artillerie - Horse Artillery
These two corps undertake the field artillery role, and are equipped primarily with the PzH2000 and were equipped with the M109 howitzer. There is one regiment of Veldartillerie and one of Rijdende Artillerie, with one assigned to each of the army's mechanised brigades.
- Korps Luchtdoelartillerie - Air Defence Artillery
This corps undertakes the air defence role. Three individual batteries were equipped with the Stinger man-portable air defence missile and the Cheetah armoured air defence vehicle (a variation of the Leopard 1) and are assigned to the three mechanised brigades. The rest of the unit is assigned to provide air defence for other vital areas.
The Korps Luchtdoelartillerie currently consists of the Air Defence Command (Commando Luchtdoelartillerie). 11 Air Defense Company (Air Assault) Samarinda (part of 11 Luchtmobiele Brigade) is considered part of the Air Defense Artillery Regiment, but is an independent Air Defense Company and part of the infantry Regiment Van Heutsz. As it is made out mostly of infantry soldiers, in order to avoid confusion, it was decided that it not be named a battery, but a company.
As of 2007 the Air Defence Command (Colua) is located at De Peel Air Base and equipped with the NASAMS 2 Army Ground Based Air Defense Systems (Army GBADS). The regiment consists of a Joint Air Defense Center, a Staff battery, 11 Air Defense battery, 13 Air Defense battery, an instruction & 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 Fennek, a four wheeled armored vehicle with the Aselsan ready to fire Stinger surface-to-air missile launcher, and the Mercedes Benz G290GD four-wheel drive light transport vehicle, with a Dual Mounted Stinger (DMS) on a tripod, with 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 a 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 (Telefunken Radar Mobil Luftraumuberwachung) radars. These Medium range, modular, highly reliable, countermeasures-resistant, 3D, C-band, self-contained, mobile radar systems are extremely capable in detecting areal target with a small RCS (Radar Cross Section) like Cruise Missiles and U(C)AV's (Unmanned Aerial (Combat) Vehicle's), even at low attitudes.
Future
On September 23, 2009 it was announced, by the Commander Royal Netherlands Army, general Peter van Uhm, that all ground based air defense units, including the Air Force’s Guided Weapons Group (GGW) will be merged into a single Joint Air Defense Command at De Peel Air Base.