According to foreign sources, there is a high probability that the Netherlands will supply the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) with several self-propelled 155 mm Panzerhaubitz 2000 (PzH 2000) German-made howitzers. The latter follows from the statements of Dutch politicians and the military. However, a prerequisite for the effective use of weapons is the preliminary training of personnel. It is reported that Germany will provide assistance in this regard, on the territory of which both German and Dutch gunners are being trained. In an interview on April 21, 2022, Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht confirmed Berlin's readiness to train the Armed Forces personnel to use PzH 2000.
The central training place for the Bundeswehr gunners is the center for combined tactical fire support and mounted fire in Idar-Oberstein. In its structure, the Dutch Ground Forces have their own department. To train cadets, the center is equipped with so-called tower simulators and simulators. Combat shooting is practiced either at the nearby Baumholder training ground or in Bergen. According to the press service of the German Ministry of Defense, an application for the training of Ukrainian servicemen at the artillery training center has already been submitted.
Experts attribute the ability of the Netherlands to supply artillery systems to Ukraine from its own reserves to the fact that out of more than 50 PzH 2000-NL guns purchased between 2004 and 2009, initially only about 25 were used by the troops. The rest of the howitzers were stored in a warehouse and were actually intended for sale. However, apparently, there was no suitable buyer.
155 mm self-propelled howitzer PzH 2000-NL
No later than 2018, a discussion was held on the reactivation of less than a dozen self-propelled guns for active troops. As a result, eight howitzers were put into operation by artillery units of the Netherlands.
Recently, the Bundeswehr has also increased its fleet of howitzers from 80 to 108 guns, which are equipped with four mixed artillery divisions. It is reported that the Bundeswehr has a total of 121 guns at its disposal. Some of them have been dismantled and converted into training towers, with the help of which the corresponding actions of calculations are being worked out.
Since the late 1990s, the German Ministry of Defense has purchased a total of 185 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) as a successor to the aging M-109 self-propelled howitzers. Over time, numerous copies entered the service of friendly states, such as Lithuania and Croatia. In addition to them, the PzH 2000 has been delivered to Italy, Greece and Qatar. The new customer is Hungary. In 2018, Budapest ordered 24 guns.
It should be noted that German and Dutch howitzers, some of which have been in operation for more than 20 years, require the modernization of outdated electronics and sights. In addition, it is planned to optimize the Bundeswehr howitzers for firing Vulcano guided munitions with a range of about 70 km. According to the Dutch Ministry of Defense, the two countries have already agreed to jointly modernize the average life cycle of artillery systems for the second half of the decade.
According to the materials of the resource esut.de