The Dutch government decided to withdrawn the
helicopters squadrons supporting MINUSMA at the end of 2016. Two Defense
Helicopter Squadrons were deployed to Camp Castor in Mali. 301 squadron
with four of its AH-64D Apaches from April 2014 tasked with intelligence
gathering, supporting Dutch ground forces, provide a how of force and
actual fire support to UN forces in need of air support. Their
colleagues from 298 squadron operating the CH-47D/F arrived in October
2014 with three CH-47D Chinooks. They were tasked with transport and
medevac and will cease their mission at the end of April 2017. The
German Army will take over the role of the Dutch helicopters deploying a
couple of their NH90-TTHs and Tigers but these are not expected to
arrive before April. Currently the Chinooks are protecting each other
during missions (door mounted guns).
For 301 squadron the mission end on December 31st, 2016. All four
helicopters will be dismantled at Camp Castor with maintenance crews
removing rotor blades etc. With the support of a Heavy Airlift Wing
C-17A (see note) two Apaches were flown back on Friday January 6th not
to their home base at Gilze-Rijen but to Woensdrecht Air Base. Here the
logistics centre Woensdrecht takes care of depot maintenance of the
RNLAF F-16s and helicopters. The Apaches will now join the maintenance
line for their 500 hour inspection where they will be disassembled,
cleaned from sand, inspected and receive an upgrade. This process will
approximately take 25 weeks to complete after which they will return to
Gilze-Rijen and return to flying duty. The return flight for the other
two Apaches is not scheduled yet but it's intended to fly them to
Woensdrecht soon.
Note: The Netherlands is one of the twelve members who purchase three
Boeing Defense C-17A Globemaster IIIs. These aircraft are assigned to
the Heavy Airlift Wing based at Pápa in Hungary. Each member annually
buys flying hours and decides for themselves when to assign a C-17 for a
mission. The Netherlands has bought 500 hours annually.
The Netherlands purchased 30 Boeing Defense AH-64D Apache helicopters.
Two Apaches crashed while supporting international missions, one in
Afghanistan and one in Mali. RNLAF Apaches:
|
Squadron |
Number |
Status
and location |
| 301
Squadron |
20 |
Operational: Gilze-Rijen Air Base |
| 302
Squadron |
8 |
Operational: Ft. Hood, Texas |
|
|
2 |
Written Off |
|
Total |
30 |
|
The Apaches listed as operational are assigned to the squadrons but not
all of them are available for missions due to maintenance at either
their home base or at Woensdrecht. In 2017 the last helicopters will
receive their block II upgrade.
|
