Defence minister Hans Hillen announced amendments to his budget cuts of €1bn on Monday evening. He had been under pressure from the three-party ruling alliance to reduce the effect of the cuts on operational forces.

Instead of scrapping all the Cougar helicopters, Hillen says five will now remain in service, reports NRC. Two of the four patrol ships will not now be sold and there will be fewer cuts in the military police so they can do more on border controls.
Hillen said the changes are conditional on finding the shortfall of €40m elsewhere in the defence budget, says the paper.
One in six defence jobs will still be scrapped, as will the army’s fleet of tanks and around a third of the 87 f-16 flighter jets.