The cabinet accidentally announced that the Netherlands has supplied drones to Ukraine. The report “accidentally” ended up in the spring memorandum, Minister Kajsa Ollongren (Defence) wrote to the House of Representatives on Thursday.
It is not about armed drones, but about unmanned aircraft with which reconnaissance can be carried out. The Netherlands has meanwhile delivered a total of 130.4 million euros worth of military goods to Ukraine.
Defense normally only announces which goods will be delivered in exceptional cases. It was not the government’s intention to make the delivery of drones public. Earlier, the cabinet (consciously) announced that sniper rifles, armored vehicles, radar equipment and armored howitzers were sent to Ukraine.
It is not known which type of drone the Netherlands has sent to Ukraine. Defense uses several types of unmanned drones for reconnaissance purposes, such as the only 10 centimeters long PD-100 Black Hornet, the almost 1 meter long Raven and the 2 by 5 meter X-300 Integrator.
The Raven has been used extensively on missions in Afghanistan. The X-300 Integrator can be deployed both on land and at sea. This system replaced the ScanEagle, which was frequently deployed by the Defense organization in Mali and Somalia.
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