ROYAL NETHERLANDS ARMY ORDERS 12 ADDITIONAL BUSHMASTER PROTECTED MOBILITY VEHICLES
SYDNEY - On June 30, Thales Australia announced that the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands had placed an order for an additional 12 new-build Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles.
The Royal Netherlands Army acquired its first 25 Bushmaster vehicles in 2006 in response to the increasingly heavy toll imposed by IED (Improvised Explosive Device) attacks on Dutch troops operating in Afghanistan.
In the three years subsequent to this initial order, the Royal Army pursued a number of low-quantity follow on orders for Bushmaster vehicles. In total, the Royal Army ordered 86 Bushmaster vehicles through 2009.
According to Thales, the new batch of 12 vehicles will be delivered by mid-2016. As with prior Dutch orders, the troop carrier variants of the latest tender will be outfitted with Thales' SWARM remote weapons station, improved armored protection measures and specialized communications equipment.