State Secretary Van der Maat ‘slightly nervous’ by purchasing billions of submarines | Inland

Van der Maat cannot rule out the possibility that the price of the submarines will be higher than expected. Because the boats have not yet been ordered, the budget is a secret. It is certain that they will cost at least 2.5 billion euros, but there is also talk in the corridors of an amount of 4.5 billion euros. The state secretary warns that the costs could rise further.

“I cannot take away surprises,” said Van der Maat on Wednesday during a debate in the House of Representatives. “The prices of equipment for the armed forces are going up three, four, five times over. I don’t know if you follow steel prices, but it makes me a little nervous the moment you order a submarine. I’m not sure we’re not going to tinker with the price.” The war in Ukraine is causing the global arms industry to work overtime.

At the end of this year, the cabinet wants to request a quote for the submarines from three shipyards. At the end of 2023, it will be decided which yard will build the four boats. Van der Maat announced last spring that the new submarines can only be fully deployed between 2034 and 2037. That is considerably later than 2031, the year that was mentioned last year. Two of the four current Walrus-class submarines will therefore be taken out of service, so that two other boats can continue to sail with their spare parts.

Target price

Defense will work with a ‘target price’ for which the new submarines must be built. “If there are three bids that are bizarrely above our target price, we can always have the option: thank you cuckoo, this is not a good deal,” says Van der Maat. “We also require that we can look closely in the books, so that very high raises are not made.”

The replacement of the submarines is one of the most expensive projects of the government. The Netherlands would like to keep the boats, because they are very valuable from a military point of view because of the Dutch ports. The submarines can also operate in relatively shallow water. Few other countries within NATO and the EU have that capability.

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