The Netherlands armed forces are the military forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The armed forces consist of four service branches: the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Netherlands Army, the Royal Netherlands Air Force and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. The service branches are supplemented by various joint support organizations. In addition, local conscript forces exist on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao. These operate under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Netherlands Marine Corps. The armed forces are part of the Ministry of Defence.
Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear reconnaissance, logistic traffic management, counterinsurgency, and detainee handling.
A gendarmerie is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to "men-at-arms". In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces that is responsible for internal security in parts of the territory, with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates and colonial possessions adopted a gendarmerie after independence.
M-Squadron, formerly the Unit Interventie Mariniers, and before that known as the Bijzondere Bijstandseenheid, is an elite Dutch special forces unit which is tasked with conducting domestic counter-terrorist operations. M-Squadron is part of the Netherlands Maritime Special Operations Forces of the Netherlands Marine Corps.
Law enforcement in France is centralized at the national level. Recently, legislation has allowed local governments to hire their own police officers which are called the police municipale.
The Royal Netherlands Army is the land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the Staatse Leger was raised making the Dutch standing army one of the oldest in the world. It fought in the Napoleonic Wars, World War II, the Indonesian War of Independence and the Korean War, as well as served with NATO on the Cold War frontiers in West Germany from the 1950s to the 1990s.
The Argentine National Gendarmerie is the national gendarmerie force and corps of border guards of the Argentine Republic. As at 2011, It has a strength of 30,000
The Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten (BSB) is the elite police tactical unit of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. Its missions include counter-terrorism, protection of government and military officials, and targeting organised crime.
The Fennek, named after the fennec, or LGS Fennek, with LGS being short for Leichter Gepanzerter Spähwagen in German, is a four-wheeled armed reconnaissance vehicle produced by the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Dutch Defence Vehicle Systems. The Turkish company FNSS Defence Systems acquired the right for licence production in 2004. It was developed for both the German Army and Royal Netherlands Army to replace their current vehicles.
The Bulgarian Gendarmerie is part of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior or "MoI"/"MVR".. It forms part of the country's General Directorate "Gendarmerie, Special Operations and Counterterrorism".
The Gendarmerie (French) or Rijkswacht (Dutch) was the former national Gendarmerie force of the Kingdom of Belgium. It became a civilian police organisation in 1992, a status it retained until 1 January 2001, when it was, together with the other existing police forces in Belgium, abolished and replaced by the Federal Police and the Local Police.
The National Gendarmerie is one of two national law enforcement forces of France, along with the National Police. The Gendarmerie is a branch of the French Armed Forces placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior, with additional duties from the Ministry of Armed Forces. Its responsibilities include policing smaller towns, suburbs and rural areas, crowd and riot control, and criminal investigation, including cybercrime. By contrast, the National Police is a civilian law enforcement agency that is in charge of policing cities and larger towns. Because of its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfills a range of military and defence missions. The Gendarmerie has a strength of around 102,269 people.
The Dienst Speciale Interventies, commonly abbreviated DSI, is the elite police tactical unit of the Dutch National Police Corps and was formally established on 1 July 2006. The DSI is tasked with neutralising terrorist incidents and other violent public order disruptions for which regular police units are inadequately equipped. In total, the DSI consists of about 600 active personnel.
The Ministry of Defence is the Dutch ministry responsible for the armed forces of the Netherlands and veterans' affairs. The ministry was created in 1813 as the Ministry of War and in 1928 was combined with the Ministry of the Navy. After World War II in the ministries were separated again, in this period the Minister of War and Minister of the Navy were often the same person and the state secretary for the Navy was responsible for daily affairs of the Royal Netherlands Navy. In 1959 the ministries were merged once again. The ministry is headed by the Minister of Defence, currently Ruben Brekelmans, assisted by the Chief of the Defence, Onno Eichelsheim.
Provosts are military police (MP) whose duties are policing solely within the armed forces of a country, as opposed to gendarmerie duties in the civilian population. However, many countries use their gendarmerie for provost duties.
National Police Corps, colloquially in English as Dutch National Police or National Police Force, is divided in ten regional units, two national units, the police academy, police services center, and national dispatch center cooperation. The law-enforcement purposes of these agencies are the investigation of suspected criminal activity, referral of the results of investigations to the courts, and the temporary detention of suspected criminals pending judicial action. Law enforcement agencies, to varying degrees at different levels of government and in different agencies, are also commonly charged with the responsibilities of deterring criminal activity and preventing the successful commission of crimes in progress. The police commissioner in the Netherlands is Janny Knol since March 1, 2024.
The Marechaussee Museum or Royal Marechaussee Museum is a museum on the history of the Royal Marechaussee of the Netherlands from its foundation by William I of the Netherlands on 26 October 1814 until the present day. It is based in the former Koninklijk Weeshuis in Buren, originally opened as an orphanage on 26 May 1612 by Maria van Nassau and remaining in that role until 1953.
The Fanfare Band of the Royal Marechaussee is a 60-member fanfare band which serves as the official ensemble of the Dutch Royal Marechaussee. It is currently led by Captain Peter Kleine Schaars. It is currently based in Apeldoorn. Being a professional military band representing a service branch of the Dutch Armed Forces, it consists of many different ensembles, including a saxophone quartet, and a percussion section. Also, it maintains a drum and bugle corps component.
The Iveco MTV, military designation Manticore, is an infantry mobility vehicle designed and manufactered by IVECO Defence Vehicles for the Netherlands Armed Forces. The acquisition is part of the Joint Replacement Programme of Wheeled Vehicles of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, with deliveries planned from 2023 until 2026. In Dutch service, the Manticore will replace the ageing fleet of Mercedes-Benz 290GDs of the Royal Netherlands Army, the Land Rovers of the Netherlands Marine Corps and the remaining YPR-765s of the Royal Netherlands Air Force and Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. Deliveries are planned for the second half of 2023 and should be completed by 2026.
The Operational Support Command Land is a support command of the Royal Netherlands Army. The command consists of multiple combat support and combat service support units that provide the army with a broad variety of services. The OOCL was established in 2009, with the simultaneous disbandment of 1 Logistics Brigade and 101 Combat Support Brigade.
