Despite its enormous numerical and technological superiority, the Russian armed forces have great difficulty in bringing Ukraine to its knees. In large part, it seems, this is because the Ukrainian military is more motivated to fight than the Russian invaders. “It is the people who make the difference there,” concludes Lieutenant Colonel Marnix Felius.
It is the person who makes the difference
Marnix Felius Lieutenant Colonel
According to Felius, the lesson for the Netherlands is therefore: above all, invest in the “man in the military suit – in addition to increasing the strength of units and replenishing stocks” in the coming years. By educating soldiers better, training them better, paying better – and thus better motivating them with this signal of social appreciation. You can, says Felius, use a hypermodern fighter plane like the F-35, “but without a deeply felt motivation, such as wanting to defend democracy in my case, the pilot sends the aircraft backwards, so to speak.”
Many (former) soldiers seem to think this way, learn the reactions to a call from NRC†
What to do with 2 billion?
After the invasion of Ukraine, the Netherlands decided to quickly increase military expenditure to 2 percent of national income, as was already agreed in 2014 within the NATO alliance. This means that on top of the extra 3 billion euros from the coalition agreement, roughly another 2 billion is available. NRC up early LinkedIn: what should that extra money be spent on?
Especially the salaries of the Dutch soldiers, according to many comments and e-mails. “First [aan de] people themselves and [aan een] good accompanying collective labor agreement”, writes one. Spend it on „improving [van de] working conditions [van het] staff,” wrote the other. The responses are anonymous, because soldiers are not allowed to talk to the press without permission from the Ministry of Defense.
Soldiers and NCOs in particular – the lower ranks – earn considerably less than civilians in comparable occupations. “Now an employee at McDonald’s earns a higher hourly wage than a soldier, and that is simply ridiculous, given the workload,” emails a former non-commissioned officer. “They are people who do work, so that the Netherlands can sleep peacefully.”
It is often even worse, says Niels van Woensel, chairman of the Dutch Officers Association. “The basic salary of a novice soldier is so low that it has to be supplemented with allowances up to the minimum wage.” For most soldiers, their salary only comes close to that of civilians thanks to the allowances for exercises and deployments. “While the allowances are intended as an extra,” says Van Woensel, “as compensation for the fact that they are often away from home for a long time and do their work under difficult and often dangerous conditions.”
Read here what the lack of money does to the clout of the Dutch army
That original idea has been eroded because the Netherlands has started to spend less on defense after the fall of the Wall some thirty years ago. “Investments remained reasonably stable, because for the purchase of equipment you are often tied to long-term contracts, processes and binding contracts,” says former Lieutenant General Jan Broeks. “For politicians, there were two buttons left to turn when austerity measures were taken. Operating costs, such as exercises and maintenance of buildings and equipment. And the expenditure on personnel.”
The latter resulted in the purchasing power of military personnel falling by about twenty percent, a soldier calculates. The former non-commissioned officer noticed this firsthand: “Until the mid-nineties of the last century I had a good wage.” That changed around the turn of the century, he notes, when Dutch soldiers started going to Afghanistan. “Many favorable arrangements were withdrawn, the broadcasts became more and more intense, people had to work harder, with less monthly wages, and less resources.”
Money is not the motivation of soldiers. They choose the weapon because of immaterial things: adventure, comradeship, action, contributing to a better world. This can be seen from the doubling of the number of applications to defense after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. This also means that medical specialists and IT experts accept that they earn less in the armed forces than colleagues in the business world.
There is only ‘a lower limit’, says Van Woensel, ‘and we have already passed that for a long time’. He emails an older report from his union about pay differences between civilians and military personnel (see boxes). For example, a sergeant with ten years of experience, who leads a group of soldiers, earns several hundred euros less per month than a transport planner.
Many military personnel switch to an employer that pays better and replacements are not easy to find. As a result, defense has been struggling with 9,000 vacancies for years – 20 percent of the total file. The recent revival in the number of registrations is ‘very encouraging’, says Van Woensel, but for the time being it concerns a few hundred people who also have to get through the strict selection.
Too few battalions
The lack of personnel means, among other things, that the Netherlands cannot properly perform its NATO tasks, says former General Broeks: “To name a few: according to NATO, a brigade must consist of four battalions. [eenheden van 600 tot 800 militairen]† Our brigade in Oirschot has two battalions, our brigade in Havelte has three.” The Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), in which Broeks sits, has pleaded for on March 4 to use the additional 2 billion to fulfill NATO commitments – including by improving “personnel availability and readiness.”
In the coalition agreement, the cabinet has already earmarked half a billion for modernization and improvement of working conditions. “We’ll come a long way with that,” says Van Woensel, “but if more people are added and the vacancies are largely filled, we will have to add more money.” Not only for a higher salary, but also for schemes to improve the work-life balance, says Van Woensel. “That’s the only way we can keep people.”
Good working conditions are also important in order to fight well, says Martijn Kitzen, professor at the Dutch Defense Academy. “Military ability is determined, among other things, by the mental component, the moral strength of the military. This is fueled not only by the will to fight, but also by the social and political appreciation experienced by the soldier – also in money.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 15, 2022
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