Modernized and to war
The Dutch Vipers leave their service life with the Koninklijke Luchtmacht as F-16AM and F-16BM, having been modernized to better standards. 24 of them will be donated to the Ukrainian Air Force. A dozen are already pre-positioned with the European F-16 Training Center (EFTC) at the Baza 86 Aeriana near Fetești, Romania. Here, RNLAF pilots and those of other countries train both Romanian and Ukrainian pilots on the type.
During their more than 40 years of service, the Netherlands used its F-16s a couple of times in anger. Firstly, over former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, where Dutch F-16s engaged ground targets and shot down a Serbian MiG-29. In 2002 to 2004 a small detachment of Dutch F-16s supported the Western nations' presence in Afghanistan out of Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. Between 2014 and 2018 RNLAF F-16s flew 2,100 live bombing and ground support missions over Syria and Iraq, officially targeting ISIS (Daesh) positions. The mission debriefings are classified, but the Dutch media have reported that mistakes were made - likely by wrong intel, and this resulted in the death of at least 70 civilians in 2015.
RNLAF F-16s sold, lost and on display
Former F-16s of the Royal Netherlands Air Force were sold between 2006 and 2017 and fly on in Chile (37 aircraft delivered) and Jordan (21 aircraft delivered). According to the Netherlands national audit authority (
Algemene Rekenkamer) a total of 37 RNLAF Vipers were lost in accidents, 18 were scrapped, 12 are saved as static display at museums and air bases and 18 are used for non-flying training purposes.
By 2020, only 68 remained in service - after which the gradual replacement by the new F-35 started. Orders call for 52 F-35s, of which the first landed at Leeuwarden Air Base in 2019. Volkel Air Base is home to F-35s as well. It were two F-16s from Volkel that scrambled for the last Quick Reaction Alert on 28 March 2024 - a training flight this time with the fake enemy being another pair of still operational F-16s.