to a surplus of vacancies at the armed forces.
De Vries will save 90 million euros this year due to the shortage of personnel. Of this, 70 million will go on the purchase, along with a number of NATO countries, of three C-17s. The other 20 million will cover higher than expected fuel prices, the state secretary said in the Lower House. The Christian democrats (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) also asked for funds to be spent on a bonus that military personnel should receive if they have been on foreign missions three times in the past three years. If they were away for a total of 12 months, they should get 1,000 euros net. The state secretary was sympathetic towards the proposal and will discuss it with the military unions.
The House also asked for Fennek reconnaissance vehicles to be given extra armouring, so that they could offer the Dutch troops in Afghanistan more protection against roadside bombs from the 2009 second half. The Fenneks are faster and more manoeuvrable than Bushmasters, which are much more heavily armoured. De Vries will first investigate how much money this would involve.
De Vries rejected the establishment of a centrally-managed independent complaints commission for veterans. PvdA, the Socialist party (SP), small Christian party ChristenUnie and the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) wanted this.
The defence ministry also said the armed forces will use computer games Steel Beast Pro and Virtual Battlespace 2 to train army personnel. The simulation games, which are for sale to ordinary consumers, will be adapted with a real-time evaluation mode for the army.
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