AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch army will have its own tank unit for the first time in more than 10 years, local media reported on Tuesday, quoting some extracts from a defence white paper that the government will unveil on Thursday.
The set up of this unit, which will help the Netherlands comply with the NATO target of spending at least 2% of its GDP on defence, will cost between 260 million and 315 million euros ($347.82 million) per year, the NRC Handelsblad reported.
That sum will, amongst others, cover the purchasing costs of new tanks, likely to be the Leopard 2, built by German tank maker Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, which has been used by the Dutch land army since 40 years.
($1 = 0.9056 euros)
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
