Royal Netherlands Army

The Royal Netherlands Army (Dutch: Koninklijke Landmacht (KL), "Royal Army") is the land forces element of the military of the Netherlands.

The Royal Netherlands Army was raised on January 9th, 1814—however, its origins date back to 1572, when the so-called Staatse Leger was raised. Therefore, the Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in the world, dating back to the 16th century. It fought during the Napoleonic Wars, World War II, the Indonesian War of Independence, Korean War, and served with NATO on the Cold War frontiers in Germany from the 1950s to the 1990s.

Since 1990, the army has deployed to the War in Afghanistan, as well as a number of United Nations peacekeeping deployments, notably with UNIFIL in Lebanon, and UNPROFOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992–1995.