Dutch Are Given U.S. Assurances on Jets
The Pentagon has assured the Netherlands that firms in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Denmark will be allowed to compete for work in a $1.2 billion program to modernize hundreds of F-16 fighters, Dutch officials said Wednesday.
Netherlands Defense Ministry spokesman Pieter Maessen said the assurance was given to visiting Dutch Undersecretary of Defense Berend-Jan Baron van Voorst tot Voorst in a Pentagon meeting Tuesday with Deputy Defense Secretary Donald J. Atwood.
The F-16s were sold to the four countries, and some of them co-produced there, with the understanding that European industry would take part in later upgrades, Maessen said.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
