NOS News•
The United States Department of State has authorized the possible sale of Himars missile systems and related equipment to the Netherlands. According to the Americans, if the deal goes through, it will cost about 670 million dollars (converted to 627 million euros).
The Dutch Ministry of Defense says that no signatures have yet been signed. It is customary in the US for the government to notify if a major arms transaction is imminent. According to the Americans, the Netherlands is interested in twenty Himars missile systems and other weapons.
Last October it became clear that the Netherlands would have access to rocket artillery for the first time since 2004. State Secretary Van der Maat of Defense said at the time that he wanted to buy hundreds of millions of weapons of this kind.
The Himars were already mentioned as an option: missiles from the systems have a range of up to 300 kilometers.
Delivery at the end of this year
Van der Maat wrote to the House of Representatives at the time that the war in Ukraine underlined the need “to be able to act in all parts of the spectrum of violence”. According to Defense, this involved an investment of 250 million to 1 billion euros.
The intention was that the purchase would be signed at the beginning of this year. The target for delivery was the end of 2023. In Ukraine, the American Himars system is widely used.
