The Dutch Air Force Doesn’t Have Enough Fighters for Air Shows

In an announcement on its official Facebook page in late January, the Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 display team cancelled its 2015 air show season.

Citing operational demands, the much-loved team said it wouldn’t be flying its single-plane display until 2016 at the earliest.

With a large deployment to Jordan to combat Islamic State, a commitment to defend NATO’s air space both at home and over the Baltic and large training detachment in the United States, the RNLAF’s fleet of F-16s is spread thin.

The Dutch air force has 61 F-16s.

But in the Ministry of Defense’s own estimation, the RNLAF’s Viper fleet can, at best, support six machines on short-term deployments, with longer deployments allowing for only four aircraft.

With eight aircraft currently deployed to Jordan alone, the service is asking a lot of its aging F-16s.