On May 18, 2023, the Israeli company Elbit Systems announced that the Ministries of Defense of the Netherlands and Israel signed an intergovernmental agreement on the acquisition by the Dutch Army of 20 combat vehicles produced by Elbit Systems of the PULS (Precise & Universal Launching System) ground-based modular multi-caliber missile system. The value of the contract, concluded for a five-year period, is $ 305 million, including the supply of guided missiles.
An image of the combat vehicle of the Israeli ground-based modular multicalibre missile system Elbit Systems PULS (Precise and Universal Launch System) in the proposed design for the Netherlands on the Scania (8x8) automobile chassis (c) Elbit SystemsRecall that the agreement reached on the purchase of the Israeli ground-based modular multicalibre PULS missile system for the Dutch armed forces was announced by Dutch Defense Minister Christoph van der Maat in the National Parliament on April 3, 2023, at the same time making statements about the intention of the Dutch Ministry of Defense to purchase ship-based Tomahawk cruise missiles in the United States (for arming four LCF-type frigates and four non-nuclear submarines of the Dutch Navy) and air-based AGM-158B JASSM-ER cruise missiles (for equipping Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighters of the Netherlands Air Force).
Van der Maat said that the delivery of PULS systems to the Dutch army should be started as early as 2023. [...]
In 2004, the Netherlands decommissioned all their 23 MLRS M270 MLRS combat vehicles, which were then sold to Finland. Now the purchase of Israeli PULS systems will allow the Dutch army to restore the ability to hit targets at long distances to a new level.
The Netherlands thus became the second known customer of the PULS system after Denmark. signed in early March a contract worth $ 133 million for the purchase of eight PULS missile systems (two batteries).
The PULS (Precise and Universal Launching System) multi-purpose multi-caliber rocket system produced by Elbit Systems is actually a rebranding of the system formerly known as Lynx. The PULS system can use 122-mm and 160-mm unguided and guided missiles, 306-mm guided high-precision missiles EXTRA, 370-mm guided Predator Hawk missiles, Delilah cruise missiles, as well as, apparently, standard missiles of the American MLRS and HIMARS missile systems.
The multi-purpose launcher of the PULS system can be carried on various chassis and has two transport and launch containers, each of which can accommodate 18 Accular 122 mm missiles with a range of up to 35 km, or ten Accular 160 mm missiles with a range of up to 40 km, or four EXTRA missiles with a range of up to 150 km, or two Predator Hawk missiles with a range of up to 300 km.
In the European market since the end of 2022, Elbit Systems has been promoting a variant of the PULS system in partnership with the German company KMW (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann) as a Euro-PULS concept for the next-generation European long-range rocket artillery, with its offer as a successor system to MLRS in European NATO countries - primarily for the armed forces German forces.
