13th Light Brigade (Netherlands)


The 13th Light Brigade is one of the three combat brigades of the Royal Netherlands Army, the other ones being 11th Airmobile Brigade and 43rd Mechanised Brigade. The brigade is a fully motorised brigade, equipped with Fennek, Boxer and Bushmaster wheeled, armoured vehicles.
WWW defensie.nl/organisatie/l...

History

The brigade was formed as the 13th Motorized Brigade, and came from the 3rd Infantry Brigade. The 3rd Infantry Brigade was part of the First Division "7 December", which was formed on 1 September 1946. In 1950 the brigade was transformed into a mechanized infantry brigade, the 13th Mechanized brigade, which became part of the 4th Division and was stationed in North Germany. After the reforms of 1970 the brigade became again a part of the First Division. In the early 1990s the brigade became a fully mechanized brigade. In 2013, the brigade lost its mechanized infantry fighting vehicles and was equipped with wheeled equipment and therefore renamed 13th Light Brigade.
In 2023 the brigade was integrated into the German Army's 10th Panzer Division.
In September 2024 it was reported that the 13th Light Brigade will receive Boxer RCT30 infantry fighting vehicles.
On the 19th of December 2025 the Dutch Armed Forces' press service announced that the 13th Brigade would receive an additional infantry battalion based in Budel and equipped with CV-90 infantry fighting vehicles, and that subsequently the brigade would be designated as 13th Medium Brigade

Organization

As of March 2025 the 13 Light Brigade consists the following units:13 Light Brigade, in Oirschot
In the next few years, a third armoured infantry battalion will be raised, equipped with CV90 armoured infantry vehicles, as well as 41 Field Artillery Battalion, equipped with PzH2000 howitzers and PULS rocket artillery, a reserve engineer company and additional medical and supply elements.

Equipment