A look at the Defence news 20 - 26 September
Last week, Henk Kamp was appointed as the caretaker Minister of Defence. He has thus returned to the position that he fulfilled from 12 December 2002 until 22 February 2007. He will fulfil the role until a new government has been installed. His predecessor Ank Bijleveld-Schouten resigned after a majority in the House of Representatives had supported a censure motion against her. The motion was submitted on account of the role of the Netherlands during the evacuations from the Afghan capital Kabul.
Joint Expeditionary Force prepares for disinformation and cyber attacks
Units of the Netherlands armed forces undertook large-scale training with the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) for the first time last week. This multinational military force comprising personnel from 10 countries has been in place since 2018, but is not yet well known. During Exercise Joint Protector in Sweden, about 500 military personnel trained at resisting hybrid threats, the dissemination of disinformation and cyberattacks among them.
During Joint Protector, the training programme included various scenarios based on real world challenges. One of the scenarios involved the JEF training in how to support a government after the enemy has shut down a power station via a cyberattack. Other scenarios also addressed issues that could potentially cause serious unrest in society.