Military of Netherlands
Service branches	Koninklijke Landmacht Koninklijke Marine, Koninklijke Luchtmacht Koninklijke Marechaussee
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
Minister of Defense	Eimert van Middelkoop
Chief of the Netherlands Denfence Staff	General Peter van Uhm
Manpower
Military age	17 [1]
Available for military service	3,557,918, age 15–49 (2005 est.)
Fit for military service	2,856,691, age 15–49  (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annually	123,584 (2005 est.)
Active personnel	61,130 (77th)
Expenditures
Budget	€8.525.000.000 (11.2 billion USD) (2009)
Percent of GDP	1.65% (2009)

The military of the Netherlands is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix Koninklijke (Royal):

• Koninklijke Landmacht (KL), the Royal Netherlands Army.
• Koninklijke Marine (KM), the Royal Netherlands Navy, including the Marine-Luchtvaartdienst (Naval Air Service) and Korps Mariniers (Marine Corps).
• Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu), the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
• Koninklijke Marechaussee (KMar), the Royal Military Police, tasks include military police and some civil police duties.

Conscription in the Netherlands was suspended in 1996. All military specialities, except the Submarine service and the Marine Corps, are open to women. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is found impossible for women to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs 68,000 personnel, including both civilian and military personnel.

Within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, there are small local armed forces on the islands of Aruba (Arumil) and Curaçao (Antmil). These operate under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Marines.

The Military ranks of the Dutch armed forces have similarities with British and U.S. ranks.

[edit] Budget rise

The budget for the military in 2007 was €7.7 billion. Several political parties have suggested raising the military expenditure so that it is closer to the NATO standard for military expenditures, which is 2.0% of the GDP. For 2008 there is a budget increase of around €500 million, bringing the budget in 2008 to €8.2 billion. With the agreement to stay in Afghanistan until 2010, another €850 million will be added to the budget over the next years, to compete with the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan. The Budget for 2009 is now around €8.5 billion.

[edit] Contemporary campaigns

Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s have been deployed on operations over Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan

Since the 1990s, the Dutch army has been involved in four major military campaigns:

• Bosnian War
• Kosovo War
• Multinational force in Iraq
• Multinational force in Afganistan; the Dutch army serving in Afghanistan, and leading the effort in the province Uruzgan is part of the International Security Assistance Force.

[edit] References

•  This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Military of the Netherlands

• Official homepage of the Ministry of Defense
• Official homepage of the Royal Netherlands Air Force
• Official homepage of the Royal Netherlands Army
• Official homepage of the Royal Netherlands Navy
• Official homepage of the Royal Military Police

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