Netherlands and Sweden receive new bridging systems

The Netherlands has received the first of three IRBs ordered from GDELS on 30 June 2023. (GDELS)

The Netherlands and Sweden have received their first new bridging systems from General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS).

The Dutch Ministry of Defence announced on its website on 25 November that the Royal Netherlands Army's 105 Bridge Company in Hedel had received its first bridging system, which the Dutch Engineering Training Centre's Engineer and Pontoon School will include in training courses for the first time in January and February. This will be followed by the introduction of the bridging system into the first platoon in May. Two more bridging systems are scheduled to be delivered by the end of June 2026.

The Netherlands signed a contract for three new Improved Ribbon Bridges (IRBs) with GDELS–Bridge Systems on 30 June 2023. The procurement of a wet wide-gap crossing capability for the Dutch Engineer Corps consists of pontoons, bridge erection boats to move the pontoons and keep them in position in the water, WLS trucks to transport the pontoons and boats by land, and bridge adapter pallets to launch and recover them from the water. The contract comprises IRB sections with a total length of 225 m and bridge erection boats from US company Birdon.

GDELS said in a press release on 19 November that it had handed over the first M3 amphibious bridge and ferry system to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (Försvarets materielverk: FMV) on 14 November at the company's Kaiserslautern site in southwestern Germany where it is being built.