Because tanks play such a incredible big role in all the conflicts we're fighting today, right? No, they don't.
Because we're not fighting an interstate conflict right now, hello.
We send scouts to Mali,
Because we wanted a seat at the Security Council and there was a requirement for an ISR component that fit exactly what the Dutch are good at. it failed, but come on, it's a UN mission, what did we expect.
infantry to the Baltic states,
Mechanised infantry. We sent tanks to Norway with Mechanised infantry. Also the eFP is not there to actually fight. It's an insurance to ther Baltics NATO will fight if the Baltics egt attacked. Sending tanks there that would be destroyed anyway would be a wasted loss.
F-16s to Jordan and ships all over the place.
First one because it was asked for and it was the only low-risk operation we could lay our hands on. Second one because it is literally the most Duitch thing to do.
Tanks would do absolutely nothing and serve purely as a PR-tool. That money can be spend way more effectively. Don't get me wrong, if we would place those tanks in Latvia or Lithuania I'd be all for it. But we won't.
Because of aforementioned reasons. the Dutch CHOSE to not deploy tanks to Afghanistan, in spite of the Norwegians (I think) and the Canadians choosing so anyway.
Just because we don't have a mission that could involves tanks
now, doesn't mean we'll ever get one. Serbia is stirring shit again, who know if something blows up anywhere. It is not likely, but it is really not an expensive insurance to have when you need it.
The reasoning you're offering is as if we'd never get a regular war again on the European continent. This is simply too uncertain to tell, and considering other countries aren't selling theirs, we shouldn;t either.
Then again, personally I don't like how the tanks are gone about now in the NL. As a small country we can make ourselves much more relevant elsewhere by jumping into niches, we barely do and that's a shame. Unitl the NL state in their development strategies for the militayr they want to fill exclusively a niche role, then we can do out with the tanks, until then, we need them. Not very hard, but we do.
Why bother buying loads of F-35s etc?
I'm just gonna assume that question is not meant serious and you can tell the difference between the political and militairy reasons to buy a jet and not a tank. Especially considering the sort of missions we actually perform with our military.
I'll grace it with an answer:
Intel
Same reason we are buying Predators and buying Hornets for Recces. The Netherlands is a budding ISR/intel military.
