US Approves Sale of 20 HIMARS Systems to the Netherlands in $670 Million Deal
On 16 December, the US State Department approved a potential military sale of HIMARS multiple launch rockets system to the Netherlands valued at approximately $670 million dollars. The figure includes 20 HIMARS launchers with 157 rocket pods; half of these are for the long-range ATACMS missile and half are for shorter range GMLRS missiles (39 of the M30A2 variant and 38 of the M31A2 variant). An unspecified number of pods of training missiles are also included as well as various supporting equipment such as Humvees, cargo trucks, resupply vehicles, radios, GPS receivers and laptops. The package also includes training, technical, engineering, and logistics support services.
According to the official release from the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency:
“The proposed sale will improve the Netherlands’ military goals of updating capability while further enhancing interoperability with the United States and other allies. The Netherlands intends to use these defense articles and services to modernize its armed forces and expand its capability to strengthen its homeland defense and deter regional threats. The Netherlands will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”
After years of falling defense spending, Amsterdam responded to the invasion of Ukraine with by announcing up to 3.5 billion euros ($3.74 billion USD) in spending for military procurement in October 2022; the purchase of Americans HIMARS launchers comes as part of that commitment. Before that, in July of 2022, the US State Department approved a $1.2 billion sale of Patriot air defense systems to the Dutch.
The Netherlands is yet another addition to a growing list of countries seeking to purchase the American HIMARS system after its high-profile successes in Ukraine. Poland, which plans to acquire a few-hundred HIMARS launchers along with 300 comparable Korean K239 Chunmoo MLRS systems, has been the most significant buyers. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are acquiring six, six and eight launchers respectively while Taiwan is to receive eleven and Australia another twenty. Ukraine is also set to receive an additional 18 launchers on top of the 20 which are already in the country’s inventory.