{"id":2702,"date":"2026-04-19T07:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=2702"},"modified":"2026-04-10T12:03:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T10:03:33","slug":"dutch-armed-forces-to-add-drone-operators-to-combat-brigades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=2702","title":{"rendered":"Dutch armed forces to add drone operators to combat brigades"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Netherlands will add specialized drone operators and counter-drone units to its combat brigades starting in April, according to Dutch Chief of Defence Gen.\u00a0Onno Eichelsheim<\/a>, who said the country is the first to take that step.<\/p>\n

The Dutch armed forces already incorporate drones in their operations, and will expand that capability \u201csignificantly\u201d by deploying 1,000 to 1,200 personnel specifically for drone and counter-drone operations, Eichelsheim said in the\u00a0WNL Op Zondag podcast.<\/p>\n

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Drones have become ubiquitous on the battlefield in recent years, with much of the development driven by the war in Ukraine, where the government says unmanned aerial systems now account for more than 80% of enemy targets destroyed. Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s one-way Shahed drones have been destroying the Middle East since the United States and Israel started striking the country.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe lessons identified and learned from the war in Ukraine were in any case that unmanned systems were going to play a much greater role,\u201d Eichelsheim said. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that now in the Middle East, and the same goes for the conflict with Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eichelsheim said drone warfare requires a \u201ccompletely different approach\u201d to collaborating with industry on the front lines, as systems require continuous modernization and adaptation. That includes radars that have to be adjusted to respond to threats, or unmanned systems that become either more or less effective over time, the defense chief said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo you have to continuously adapt,\u201d Eichelsheim said. \u201cThat too requires a change in how we operate.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Armed forces across Europe have been trying to figure out how to adapt to an era of mass drone warfare, with Russia and Ukraine each using millions of drones a year in their war that has entered its fifth year. The Netherlands in December ordered\u00a0Skyranger anti-drone cannons\u00a0from Rheinmetall to protect maneuvering troops as well as static sites.<\/p>\n

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The Netherlands will add specialized drone operators and counter-drone units to its combat brigades starting in April, according to Dutch Chief of Defence Gen.\u00a0Onno Eichelsheim, who said the country is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-2702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-army","tag-drones"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/drone-operators.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}