Sir,
I have said this before in these forums, but I am afraid it is getting more urgent now: although nothing is officially known yet, there will be huge spending reductions in the Netherland in order to comply with the rules on deficit of the European Union. Of course, one of the first possibilities is Defence.
My estimate is that Leeuwarden AB is going to be closed and at least 2 squadrons of F 16's will be disbanded. Ergo: anything up to 36 well maintained MLU's are available with plenty of spare parts and weapons, AND Sir, a sufficient number of well trained and experienced pilots (including weapon and flying instructors) ground personnel and anything you need to set up a complete airbase as far as necessary..
All the personel mentioned above would love to emigrate to Kiwiland instead of flying desks, be fired anyway or becoming civilians, same as the NZ personel emigrated after the Strike Wing was so elegantly discarded of by one of your predecessors. Multi role supersonic planes, avionics comparable to Block 50-52 , and personnel also able to help set up training facilities for NZ pilots for the years to come to work in the direction of an all Kiwi force in the future. So not too much initial costs..........
And, Minister, as this is the seond round of reductions within one year, if you might need anything for the Navy (couple of frigates, brand new) or the Army (about 60 Leopards II A6, some Patriots or whatever), just let us know too.....
We are very sorry that we already gave our Orions away, but, as an extra if you need a huge amount of seond hand speed camera's and devices like that for your police, a phone call is sufficient, as, notwithstanding reductions on everything else, there are of course plentifull funds for new stuff of that kind for the police (where would a country be without speeding tickets) , so the somewhat older hardware (maximum 2 years or so) is very cheaply available ............
I have the honour to be , sir,
Your obedient,
Derk