Government U-turns on decision not to replace air-raid sirens

The Dutch government is to replace its network of air-raid sirens when the old system is switched off in 2028, reversing an earlier decision not to fund a new version.

Justice minister David van Weel said an early warning system for air raids or rocket attacks was “essential”, just two weeks after he had announced that the network of 4,200 sirens was being shut down.

Two years ago MPs voted in favour of a motion by JA21 party leader Joost Eerdmans to extend the maintenance contract for the existing sirens after the previous cabinet had announced they would be switched off in 2025.

Around nine in 10 people in the Netherlands have the mobile phone app NL-Alert installed, but opposition parties voiced concern about the impact of switching off the sirens on the rest of the population.

The NL-Alert system could also be compromised if the electricity network is taken offline, a scenario the government explicitly warns people to prepare for as part of its Denk Vooruit (“think ahead”) campaign.

In a letter to parliament, Van Weel said the current system was antiquated and would be switched off on January 1, 2028, but an “innovative” national network of warning sirens with a different alert sound will be installed in its place.

Defence funding

The new system will be financed from the existing budgets of the justice and defence ministries.

“We will realise a new civilian-military warning network as an important operational part of both our civilian crisis management and the national air and missile defence system,” Van Weel said.

The 4,278 siren towers, which are tested on the first Monday of every month at noon, were last replaced in 1998. They were last activated in response to rapid river flooding in southern Limburg in 2021 and the release of poisonous chemicals from the Chemelot industrial plant, also in Limburg, in 2019.