The Netherlands Armed Forces are the military services of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The core of the armed forces consists of the 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 organisations. In addition,local conscript forces exist on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba (AruMil) and Curaçao (CurMil). These operate under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Netherlands Marine Corps. The armed forces are organisationally part of the Ministry of Defence.
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 Land Component,historically and commonly still referred to as the Belgian Army,is the land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land Component is Major-General Jean-Pol Baugnée.
Lieutenant General Robert T. Clark is a retired United States Army officer. His last assignment was as the Commanding General,Fifth United States Army which he commanded from December 5,2003 to December 2006.
Multi National Base Tarin Kot is a former International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) installation,used after the Netherlands Armed Forces' departure by the Afghan National Army. The base was located on the outskirts of Tarinkot,the capital of Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan.
Ton van Loon is a commander from the Netherlands. He is a Lieutenant General employed by NATO who took control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF),Regional Command South (RC-S) on November 1,2006,until May 1,2007. From April 13,2010,until September 25,2013,he commanded I. German/Dutch Corps. He is married and has two children.
The 11 Air Assault Brigade is the rapid light infantry brigade of the Royal Netherlands Army,focused on conducting air assault operations. Troops of the brigade are qualified to wear the maroon beret upon completion of the demanding training course,those qualified as military parachutists wear the appropriate parachutist wings. The brigade received the name "7 December" when the First Division "7 December" was disbanded in 2004.
Volker Wieker is the former Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr,the German armed forces,and a general of the German Army. Trained as an artillery officer,Wieker served in every major foreign Bundeswehr deployment since 1996,including Bosnia,Kosovo and Afghanistan.
The chief of defence is the highest-ranking military officer in the armed forces of the Netherlands and is the principal military advisor to the minister of defence. On behalf of the minister of defence,he is responsible for operational policy,strategic planning and for preparing and executing military operations carried out by the armed forces. The chief of defence is in charge of the central staff and is the direct commanding officer of all the commanders of the branches of the armed forces. In this capacity,the chief of defence directs all the activities of the Royal Netherlands Army,the Royal Netherlands Navy and Royal Netherlands Air Force. He is also in charge of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee,when it is operating under the responsibility of the minister of defence.
The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is the executive commander of the Royal Netherlands Army and reports directly to the Chief of Defence. The Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army is statutorily a three-star general. The current C-LAS is Air Defense Artillery Lieutenant General Martin Wijnen. As of March 2024,Major General Jan Swillens will take office as the new Commander of the Army with simultaneous promotion to lieutenant general.
Lieutenant General A.G.D. (Ton) van Osch is a senior Dutch military commander and past Director General of the European Union Military Staff.
General Marc van Uhm is a two-star general in the Royal Netherlands Army and served as its deputy commander.
Thomas Antonius Middendorp is a retired general of the Royal Netherlands Army. He served as Chief of Defence of the Armed forces of the Netherlands from 28 June 2012 until 3 October 2017. He previously served as the commander of Task Force Uruzgan part of the International Security Assistance Force from 2 February 2009 until 3 August 2009.
John Francis Campbell is a retired United States Army general who was commander of the Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces –Afghanistan. He was the 16th and last commander of the International Security Assistance Force. Prior to this,he served as the 34th Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army. He is currently a member of the board of directors of IAP,and BAE Systems,and serves on the advisory board of Code of Support Foundation.
Achim Lidsba was a Major General of the Army and the German Armed Forces and since 14 July 2011 Commander of the Armed Forces Staff College in Hamburg.
Patrick James Donahue II is a United States Army lieutenant general who served as deputy commander,United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM).
Martin Wijnen is a Dutch Lieutenant-general. He was the Commander of 43 Mechanized Brigade and is now the commander of the Royal Netherlands Army.
Lieutenant General Sir Nicholas Robert Macrae Borton,,is a senior British Army officer,who currently serves as commander of NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.
Lieutenant General Gavan John Reynolds,is a senior officer in the Australian Army. He joined the army via the Royal Military College,Duntroon in 1985 and has spent much of his career in military intelligence. He has commanded the 1st Intelligence Battalion (2004–05) and the 6th Combat Support Brigade (2013–15),and deployed on operations to the Persian Gulf,Lebanon and Syria,Iraq,and Afghanistan. He served as Head Military Strategic Plans from 2019 to 2020,before being appointed as the inaugural Chief of Defence Intelligence in July 2020.
Leo Beulen was the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army between 24 March 2016 until August 2019.
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