THE HAGUE, 03/02/07 - The caretaker cabinet on Friday decided to purchase six Chinook transport helicopters. The purchase comes with a price tag of 389.5 million euros.

The producer of the Chinook is Boeing. The Dutch army had 11 Chinooks at its disposal, which in recent years have been frequently deployed for crisis response operations. As two were lost in a crash in 2005 during a mission in Afghanistan, the fleet is now being expanded to 15 Chinooks rather than 17. The proposal has been submitted to the Lower House.

The Dutch aircraft (version ACMS Block-6) can be deployed in both day and night time and during all types of weather conditions. Therefore, they can also carry special forces, as the cabinet stated. The helicopters will be equipped with weather radar, ice detector, self-protection against enemy attacks, infrared camera, abseil installation and communication systems for long distances.

The cabinet also decided to extend the Dutch contribution to the NATO training mission in Iraq until August 2007. During the next six months, the Netherlands will provide 14 servicemen, one fewer than the current input. The NATO training mission is aimed at building up the Iraqi security sector.