The Netherlands and Denmark are putting a combined €400 million into a Swedish fund to build a total of 230 armoured tanks for Ukraine, most of which will be built in the Netherlands by an “important and established” Dutch company, defence minister Kajsa Ollongren said on Friday.

The project is part of a plan to scale up the production and delivery of military material to Ukraine, which also includes rockets for Patriot air defence systems that are being built in Germany.

In addition, the defence ministry is investing €54 million in developing drones for its own arsenal. “We have seen how important drones have become,” Ollongren said. The project involves unmanned aircraft as well as systems that operate on land and at sea.  

The investment is necessary, the ministry said, because Europe’s security has worsened following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, the production and delivery of military equipment in the Netherlands is too slow and “Europe needs to be less dependent” on others, the ministry said.