Apaches against pirates
(BRUSSELS2) This is the proposal made by some Dutch MPs (from the Liberal Group) before the 2nd chamber of the Dutch parliament today (Thursday 10 November), where a debate is being organized on the fight against piracy. We must strengthen the fight against pirates and put Apache attack helicopters on board Dutch ships deployed off the Indian Ocean.
The Brits did it, why can't we
« The Apaches have much greater firepower than the Lynx helicopters used today. The British used them, and it was effective” explained the initiator of this idea, Han Ten Broeke in The Telegraph (information taken from Elsevier especially). " The two Dutch frigates deployed against piracy Hr Ms Johan de Witt and Hr Ms Rotterdam could be equipped ". A proposal supported by other parties - he assures - by other parties like the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the PVV (freedom party) of Geert Wilders.
Double the protection teams
But the Liberal MP (and his party) does not stop there. He felt that piracy was a problem not only on the east coast of Africa but also on the west coast, and would like more attention to be paid to it. And, above all, he would like to quickly double the number of on-board protection teams placed on the most sensitive ships. It would be necessary to protect 100 ships instead of 50 as at present (per year). In the Netherlands, with a certain consensus, the political class has agreed not to generalize the use of private guards. The Dutch government thus opposed the demand of the shipowners' lobby to be able to have private and armed guards on their ships, considering that it was necessary to keep the monopoly of force but, on the other hand, agreed to place teams of protection on some of them.
