On 29 January 2025, the Ministry of Defence sent a letter to the House of Representatives on the procurement of Rheinmetall Skyranger30 systems against drones. The Working Group on Politics and Defence Technology offered a number of comments and suggested questions on this to the Standing Committee on Defence in the Lower House.
Offering a combined DMP-A/D at once potentially speeds up the political decision-making process considerably. Such a time saving is of great importance in the current geopolitical circumstances and full order books in the industry. Has the entire process been accelerated as well?
However, it might be useful to retrospectively evaluate the overall lead time of this procurement and DMP process to determine whether further improvement is possible.
Our working group believes that defence against future drones should be a top priority. In Ukraine, Lebanon and Gaza, drones are an important military tool. This is not for the first time, as drones have often been used in other recent conflicts as well.
Technological developments are very rapid in this field. From large and medium-sized reconnaissance systems a few years ago, we now increasingly see large numbers of small, autonomously flying and armed drones. Artificial intelligence (AI) for control and deployment, technology for swarming behaviour of large numbers of flying drones and further weaponisation will be a reality within a few years. The secretary of state also indicates this in his letter.
The secretary of state indicates that Military Off the Shelf (MOTS) procurement offers advantages in terms of price and delivery time. The delivery time aspect may be correct and necessary in the current geopolitical circumstances, but MOTS systems are actually obsolete upon delivery. The Skyranger30 was introduced in 2020. With delivery of the proposed order in 2028, this represents 8 years of threat development. The working group therefore questions whether the proposed rapid-fire gun will still be a technically suitable response to large numbers of manoeuvring targets in the next decade.
The manufacturer also already indicates that there is room for expansion with modern interceptors, such as high-energy laser, short-range anti-aircraft missiles and other drone interceptors.
It seems of great importance to the working group that, in close consultation with the manufacturer, further development should already start in the short term, so that the systems can be equipped with more modern interceptors upon delivery or soon after. This could also be an excellent opportunity for Dutch industry to help develop and realise this expansion. Better than producing existing parts for the MOTS system.
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The Hague, 9 February 2025
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Photo: Ministry of Defence
