Aircraft

Four Royal Netherlands Air Force Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters left Gilze-Rijen airbase on 12 April for deployment to Kandahar in Afghanistan, writes Anno Gravemaker.

Transported using two US Air Force Boeing C-17s, the aircraft will support International Security Assistance Force activities in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, where the Netherlands will deploy 1,200 personnel by mid-year.

A final two Apaches were scheduled to follow late last week, with six Eurocopter AS352U2 Cougar transport helicopters to be deployed from late April. The Netherlands already has three Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters at Kandahar, plus one Lockheed Martin C-130 transport and four Lockheed F-16 fighters based in Kabul.