Noblesse Oblige

Abstract

In the late 1990s the Dutch government under Labour minister-president Wim Kok decided to pursue a replacement for the main strike fighter of the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNAF), the F-16. From very early on, there was a strong preference for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). This position has held through the subsequent seven governing coalitions, even though the political balance on the issue has fluctuated over time. Politicians have presented the decision to participate in the JSF development program as an entirely separate issue from that of replacing the F-16. Every government since 1996 has insisted in public that the one issue does not necessarily lead to the other, even though this has become an increasingly untenable division to maintain.Since the beginning, the Dutch commitment to the JSF has been driven by a coalition of military, governmental, and industrial interests that have sought to keep the project on track in the face of increasing parliamentary opposition and budget cuts. RNAF wants to secure cutting-edge US military technology in order to remain in the front rank of NATO forces. The Dutch defence ministry came to support this position as part of its aim to maintain a flexible multi-task military, despite declining resources. The Dutch aerospace industry was attracted by the possibility of major contracts and combining with the US high-tech sector at a time when the business climate was poor. The broader context for these positions has been set by the traditionally close relations between the Netherlands and the United States, where the transatlantic outlook of Dutch security policy fits closely with US interests in maintaining the Netherlands as a useful ally.It is difficult (if not impossible) to fully reconstruct the decision-making process in the Netherlands. A network of governmental, non-governmental, and quasi-govemmental bodies have made the process less than transparent, if not opaque. Lockheed Martin, the principal manufacturer of the JSF, has conducted a determined lobbying campaign in alliance with the Netherlands Industrial Fighter Aircraft Replacement Platform (NIFARP). The ministries of economic affairs and of defence in the Netherlands have been assisted by various advisory bodies that coordinate the acquisition process and long-term planning with the private sector. This has included the Defence Material Organization and the Commission for Military Production, linked together through the Interdepartmental Coordination Group and coordinating with industry through the JSF Industry Support Team (JIST). The American think-tank Booz Allen Hamilton and consultancy RAND Europe have also played key roles. Since 2005 the Court of Audit (Algemene Rekenkamer) has provided annual independent assessments based on direct access to all government sources, but their reports are advisory only and have no direct impact on the decision-making process.1Making use of official documents, media reports, and interviews with key participants, we offer insights into the central variables involved and the specific periods during which these variables were decisive for moving the project along. Three periods have been identified-1996-2000, 2002, and 2006-2008-each one representing a particular constellation of inputs, agents, and outcomes. While the pro-JSF coalition has remained intact, external variables, such as the impact of the financial crisis on public spending, have come to play an increasingly important role.PHASE I: 1996-2000Both international and national factors fed into the initial push for the JSF. As part of the NATO strike force above Bosnia (1994-1995) and Kosovo (I999) RNAF proved to be a fully capable outfit alongside its American colleagues, and the Dutch pilots were now considered part of the unofficial A-team within NATO. On the national level in 1996, the year that Lockheed Martin and Boeing were given the task of developing next-generation Joint Advanced Strike Technologies (JAST, the basis for the JSF program), the Dutch aerospace industry was in turmoil due to the bankruptcy of Fokker, one of the pioneers of aircraft manufacturing. …