This was announced by Foreign Minister Christoph van der Maat (Defence) on Friday. “We now have a lot of small barracks for support units,” he says. “We will see how we can bring them together. As a result, our people do not have to move much.”

Van der Matt reported that he still planned to close the Johann Willem Friso barracks in Essen. He wants to move more than a thousand soldiers working there to Havelti.

They will be housed there in a compound shared with the 43rd Mechanized Brigade. Recently, there has been a lot of uproar about the intention to close Assen: the area fears that it will lose many jobs.

Shooting

The transition from Assen to Havelte will likely take five to ten years. The Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed that “we have not taken a final decision yet.” “We have expressed a management intent to integrate the sites in Havelte and Assen: we think Havelti is a good place for that.”

Van der Matt is still in talks with regional officials about the shutdown.

Moreover, the plan is to house the entire 11th Mobile Air Brigade at Charsbergen and to build new barracks for the Commando Corps in the Roosendaal and Rockven regions. The Ministry of Defense is also looking into a new shooting range to be built in Ossendrecht. This principle puts an end to the possibility of placing an elite unit under one roof with the Marines, for which new barracks are now being built in New Millennium.

Van der Matt will present his estate plan around summer. It will then become clearer how things will proceed with the other locations of the armed forces.