National Experiences - British Commission for Military History

226 ai r p o w e r in 20 t H Ce n t u ry do C t r i n e s a n d em p l o y m e n t - nat i o n a l ex p e r i e n C e s
where the Ceausescu regime had been brought down. In 1992, an F-27 detachment
spent almost six months in Southeast Asia to carry out transport flights from Thailand
for the UN mission in Cambodia. The F-27s were also deployed to support the
F-16 detachment in Villafranca, Italy, and they carried out human relief flights and
(medical) evacuations in the Balkans. From 1994, the air transport task for humanitarian
missions was carried out by the C-130s, including Rwanda in 1994, Angola
in 1995, the Caribbean in 1995 and 1998, and by the KDC-10s, including Iran in
1997, Afghanistan in 1998 and Central America in 2001. These new transport aircraft
greatly improved the RNLAF’s capabilities for providing strategic air transport
and support to Dutch military missions at large distances from the Netherlands. The
air-to-air refuelling capability of the two KDC-10s was another big step forward.
The multifunctional tanker aircraft proved their value in the Kosovo crisis in 1999
and later during operation Enduring Freedom and the ISAF mission in Afghanistan.
As mentioned before in this article, helicopter operations became increasingly
important to the RNLAF’s international operations. In the years after 1989, this task
was carried out initially by the Alouette III and the Bölkow, for instance in Iraq,
Cambodia and in the Balkans. The new transport and combat helicopters took over
this task at a later stage. A Chinook detachment provided humanitarian aid to the
Kosovar refugees in Macedonia and Albania in 1999, and a detachment consisting
of four CH-47s was deployed to the Horn of Africa from 2000 to 2001 in the context
of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). Between 2001 and
2004, Cougar and Chinook detachments rotated within the framework of the Implementation
Force (IFOR) and the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia Herzegovina.
This was to be repeated between 2003 and 2005 in the context of the Stabilisation
Force Iraq (SFIR), from Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq. This rotating system of
Cougars and Chinooks was to be applied again in Afghanistan, at Kandahar Airfield
between 2006 and 2010. The transport helicopters were assigned the whole of South
Afghanistan as their area of operations. As had been the case with the deployment of
transport helicopters, the deployment of Dutch combat helicopters was highly valued
by both the Dutch ground forces and by the international coalition partners. Apache
helicopters were deployed to Bosnia (1998-1999), Djibouti (2001), Iraq (2004-2005)
and Afghanistan (2004-2005, 2006-2010) respectively. 1 June 2006 witnessed the
first deployment in combat action of a Dutch AH-64D in Uruzgan. Since that time,
the Dutch Apaches frequently used their weapon systems to support Dutch troops on
the ground in combat. They demonstrated their effectiveness in providing Close Air
Support. The Apaches, on various occasions, succeeded in relieving ground troops
who were under fire.
In 2011, the Netherlands will boast a century of experience with the military deployment
of the aircraft. Until 1940, the development of the Dutch national air arm
took place, both literally and figuratively, within its own “narrow” borders. The politics
of non-involvement, the generally limited (financial) resources and the views of
the military establishment led to a modest position of the air arm in the Netherlands,