414 Tank Battalion (; ) is a mixed German and Dutch

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

battalion, consisting of around 100 Dutch and 300 German soldiers.

History

The battalion was founded in 2016, and became fully operational in 2019. Previously the German battalion, part of the 41st Panzergrenadier Brigade was active from 1991 to 2006 at Spechtberg. It was established on the basis of the 22nd and 23rd Panzer Regiments, 9th Panzer Division, of the

Land Forces of the National People's Army The Land Forces of the National People's Army ( – LaSK) was the ground-based military branch of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) National People's Army (NPA). The Land Forces Command, located at Geltow, was established on 1 December 1972 ...

, the former East German Army. On 17 March 2016, the battalion was attached to the Dutch 43rd Mechanized Brigade which is in turn a part of the German 1st Panzer Division. The barracks of 414 Panzerbattalion are in Bergen-Lohheide,

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. It has been described as a step towards a "

European army A European army is a hypothetical army of the European Union that would supersede the Common Security and Defence Policy and would go beyond the proposed European Defence Union. Since no such unified army is currently established, defence is a ...

Structure

414 Tank Battalion consists of the following elements: * Staff (German, few Dutch) * 1st staff company (staff and supply, mostly German, few Dutch) * 2nd tank company (German) * 3rd tank company (German) * 4th tank company (Dutch - from

Regiment Huzaren Prinses Catharina-Amalia The Regiment Huzaren Prinses Catharina-Amalia is a cavalry regiment of the Royal Netherlands Army. The regiment was formed in late 2020 through the amalgamation of three other Dutch cavalry regiments that, at the time, existed in suspension - the ...

) * 5th tank company (German and Dutch, reserve) Out of the 100 Dutch soldiers, 72 are tank crew. The other 28 are staff members, maintenance and support crew. Commander since 2022 is Luitenant-kolonel (

Oberstleutnant () (English: Lieutenant Colonel) is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to lieutenant colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, ...

) Sebastiaan Schillemans (NL)

Equipment

Duitse Leopard-gevechtstank en een Nederlands CV90 tijdens een gevechtsoefening ter voorbereiding op de flitsmacht

The battalion's main armament is the Leopard 2 A6MA2 main battle tank. The unit has 49 tanks of these upgraded MBT's. The tank is modified with a Dutch

battlefield management system A battlefield management system (BMS) is a system meant to integrate information acquisition and processing to enhance command and control of a military unit through multiple other C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligenc ...

. This is done anticipating the fact that 414 Tank Battalion has joined the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) of the

NATO Response Force The NATO Response Force (NRF) is a high-readiness NATO rapid deployment force comprising land, sea, air, and special forces units capable of being deployed quickly within short notice. The NRF comprises more than 500,000 troops. Its forces inc ...

in 2019.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Armoured units and formations of Germany Army units and formations of the Netherlands Multinational army units and formations Germany–Netherlands military relations Military units and formations established in 2016 Tank battalions