Netherlands commits £300 million to Ukraine's F‑16 capabilities and drone reconnaissance
The F-16 jets awaited by Ukraine will also need a large supply of ammunition. The Netherlands has decided to address this by transferring millions of pounds for weapon purchases. Here's what the Dutch financed.
The Dutch Minister of Defence, Kajsa Ollongren, announced the purchase of a weapons package worth £130 million for the donated F-16 jets to Ukraine. Additionally, £170 million will be transferred for the purchase of reconnaissance drones.
The Netherlands is one of the countries that have decided to provide Ukraine with F-16A/B MLU jets, now accompanied by a weapons package including air-to-ground guided missiles, likely referring to the AGM-65 Maverick missiles.
The NATO aviation's workhorse against tanks
The AGM-65 Maverick is a missile designed in the 1960s as a successor to the unsuccessful AGM-12 Bullpup. The missile was designed with a modular structure, allowing it to use a laser-homing warhead (for the US Navy) or a television camera warhead (for the USAF), depending on mission requirements.
Introduced in 1972, it offers the capability of precisely targeting armored vehicles with a 56-kilogram shaped charge warhead from a distance of about 19 kilometers, although the first versions of the AGM-65A Maverick had difficulties engaging targets beyond 13 kilometers in poor conditions.
These issues were addressed in future versions, which featured higher-resolution cameras or infrared sensors capable of discerning the thermal image of targets. This version, designated as AGM-65D Maverick, achieved initial operational capability in February 1983. Later versions of the missile, labelled AGM-65E/F/G/K Maverick, largely evolved to improve the range or the projectile's effectiveness against, for example, naval targets but also introduced the use of a 135-kilogram penetrating warhead acting with a delay.
This missile serves as an efficient fire-and-forget weapon, requiring the pilot to only confirm the target image seen by the missile sensor before launch. An F-16 can carry up to six AGM-65 Maverick missiles, which have demonstrated their effectiveness, for instance, during Operation Desert Storm against Iraqi armored forces.
