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AllAfrica
19-07-2025
- Business
- AllAfrica
US banking on cheap missiles to narrow China war gap
The US is betting on a new wave of cheap cruise missiles to win a high-tech war of attrition against China. This month, US defense contractor L3Harris Technologies revealed the 'Red Wolf' and 'Green Wolf' missiles, offering affordable, long-range strike capabilities for the US military amid rising tensions with China in the Pacific, Reuters reported. The systems support the US Department of Defense's (DoD) 'affordable mass' strategy, shaped by recent conflicts in Ukraine and Israel that underscored the need for large stockpiles of deployable munitions. Both multi-role missiles exceed a 200-nautical-mile range and can engage moving naval targets. Red Wolf focuses on precision strikes, whereas Green Wolf is designed for electronic warfare and intelligence collection. Production is underway in Ashburn, Virginia, with initial low-rate manufacturing progressing toward full-scale output. L3Harris anticipates pricing around US$300,000 per unit and aims to produce roughly 1,000 annually. Having completed over 40 successful test flights, the systems mark a strategic pivot as Lockheed Martin and RTX currently dominate the long-range missile market. The Red and Green Wolf systems join a growing list of weapons marketed under the affordable mass concept, including Anduril's Barracuda and Lockheed Martin's Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT), which embody competing visions of low-cost, mass-producible cruise missiles designed to saturate peer adversaries. Anduril's Barracuda—available in three scalable configurations—emphasizes rapid production using commercial components, modular payloads and autonomous teaming enabled by its Lattice software. Designed for flexibility across air, sea and land launches, it has entered a US Air Force/Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) prototype effort. In contrast, Lockheed's CMMT, or 'Comet,' is a modular, non-stealthy missile priced at $150,000 and optimized for global assembly and palletized mass launch from cargo aircraft. Barracuda emphasizes software-defined autonomy and flexible mission roles, while CMMT focuses on industrial-scale modularity and global assembly for cost-effective mass deployment. As the US military turns to low-cost cruise missiles like Barracuda, CMMT and the Red and Green Wolf to achieve affordable mass, a critical question looms: can these cheaper weapons deliver sufficient firepower, scale and survivability to offset industrial shortfalls and support sustained combat in a high-intensity war with China? According to the US DoD's 2024 China Military Power Report (CMPR), China possesses the world's largest navy by battle force, exceeding 370 ships and submarines, including over 140 major surface combatants. Mark Gunzinger argues in a November 2021 article for Air & Space Forces Magazine that the US suffers from a shortage of precision-guided munitions (PGMs), rooted in outdated assumptions favoring short wars, which he argues limits its ability to sustain combat against China. Seth Jones writes in a January 2023 report for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that the US defense industrial base remains optimized for peacetime and lacks resilient supply chains. Jones warns that this situation leaves the US unprepared for a protracted conflict, such as a Taiwan contingency against China, where early depletion of high-end munitions could prove disastrous. He stresses that in a potential US-China war over Taiwan, the US could expend up to 5,000 high-end, multi-million-dollar long-range missiles—including the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), Harpoon anti-ship missile and Tomahawk cruise missile—within the first three weeks of conflict. While ramping up production of lower-end PGMs could, to some extent, alleviate shortages, Evan Montgomery and others argue in a June 2024 article for War on the Rocks that cheap, mass-produced PGMs often lack the performance—stealth, speed, range and penetrating power—needed to generate lasting strategic effects. Drawing on recent case studies, they point out that Israel's neutralization of Iran's April 2024 drone swarm using $20,000-$50,000 Shahed loitering munitions contrasts sharply with Ukraine's selective use of advanced, multi-million-dollar munitions such as Storm Shadow and the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). They note the latter precision strikes forced costly Russian Black Sea Fleet redeployments and disrupted operations. Montgomery and others conclude that low-cost swarms may struggle to inflict meaningful attrition, particularly if autonomy and swarming technologies remain immature or economically unscalable. Given the capability gap between high-end PGMs like the $3.2 million per unit LRASM and more affordable systems such as the Red Wolf, Stacey Pettyjohn and others argue in a January 2025 article for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) that the US must urgently implement a high-low PGM mix to deter China. They argue that China's People's Liberation Army's (PLA) rapid expansion and increasingly coercive maneuvers have outpaced the US's Indo-Pacific posture, exposing a strategic mismatch in both capability and scale. They point out that while high-end weapons are critical for penetrating advanced defenses and executing high-value missions, they are constrained by cost, availability and replenishment lag. Conversely, they state low-cost autonomous systems can be produced more rapidly and in greater numbers to bolster mass and sustain combat effectiveness over time, though they lack the capability of high-end systems. However, Pettyjohn and others caution that the US DoD's risk-averse acquisition culture and absence of a clear operational concept integrating both tiers exacerbate these challenges. Explaining the roots of this problem, Shands Pickett and Zach Beecher write in a June 2025 article for War on the Rocks that a widening rift between traditional prime contractors and non-traditional tech entrants is fracturing the US defense-industrial base. Pickett and Beecher note that primes, known for delivering large-scale, complex systems, are criticized for being slow, risk-averse and too focused on legacy programs. In contrast, they state that non-traditionalists bring agility and innovation, rapidly developing capabilities using commercial best practices. Yet Pickett and Beecher note that these firms often struggle with integration into mission systems and scaling for full-rate production. They liken this incompatibility to clashing software languages, resulting in technical debt, mission gaps and an industrial ecosystem fragmented and ill-suited to modern threats. While low-cost missiles can help close the gap in munitions volume, their strategic value hinges on effective integration, operational clarity and industrial readiness. Without structural reforms to US acquisition practices and production infrastructure, affordable mass may fall short of delivering meaningful deterrence in a high-end conflict with China.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Wolf Pack' Of Modular Mini Cruise Missiles Unveiled By L3Harris
L3Harris has formally rolled out its modular Wolf family of 'launched effects vehicles,' which includes the Red Wolf, configured for long-range precision strikes against targets on land or at sea, and the Green Wolf fitted with an electronic warfare payload. Both could be launched from air, ground, and maritime platforms. L3Harris is one of three companies this week to highlight work on weapons in this general category. This points to something of an industrial arms race to create modular, relatively cheap, and small systems that increasingly blur the line between uncrewed aerial systems, especially longer-range kamikaze drones, and cruise missiles, as well as decoys. The development of the Wolf family traces back to 2020, according to a press release L3Harris put out yesterday. More than 40 test flights have been conducted to date. The existence of Red Wolf first emerged publicly at the U.S. Army's Experimentation Demonstration Gateway Event in 2021 (EDGE 21), with Aviation Week reporting at the time that it had originated from a secret project run by the Pentagon's Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO). The U.S. military has already been testing and evaluating versions of Red Wolf for years now, including as a path toward a new long-range strike capability for U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters. The wait is over. Introducing Red Wolf ᵀᴹ and Green Wolf ᵀᴹ, the first vehicles in our expanding pack of launched effects systems. — L3Harris (@L3HarrisTech) July 17, 2025 'Our launched effects 'wolf pack' provides U.S. military branches – regardless of platform – with a significant advantage in closing long-range kill chains, defeating adversarial threats in challenging environments and protecting assets,' Ed Zoiss, president of the Space and Airborne Systems at L3Harris, said in an accompanying statement. 'The Red Wolf and Green Wolf are lethal, modular, affordable, and ready to hunt.' Renderings of Red Wolf L3Harris released yesterday show a missile-like design with pop-out main wings and horizontal stabilizers at the tail end. It also has two vertical fins. There are a pair of intakes blended at the rear of the body to feed air to the small turbojet that powers the design. The design also has a prominent chine line that wraps around the front end and extends along the sides of the body, as well as a shovel-like shape to its nose. Both of these features are indicative of air vehicle designs with at least a degree of low-observability (stealthiness). In terms of performance, 'their endurance has been proven in flight testing, demonstrating high subsonic speeds – 200+ nautical mile range at low altitudes and 60+ minutes duration,' an L3Harris product card says. 'Modeling data proves greater speed, range, and duration capabilities.' Further details about Red Wolf and Green Wolf, including what kind of guidance package the strike configuration uses, remain limited. The renderings show a design that is also prominently different from pictures of the Red Wolf that have previously emerged. The air vehicles seen in the earlier imagery all have four fixed tail fins. At least one also has a single flush-mounted air intake for its turbojet. The design of the body looks to have remained largely consistent. I think I saw a picture of Red Wolf at PC-C4 — 笑脸男人 (@lfx160219) May 2, 2025 'For awareness, we have several derivatives of the baseline [design] that have flown and provide for a variety of ranges, payloads and capabilities,' L3Harris had told TWZ in February. As noted, the U.S. Marine Corps has already been actively testing Red Wolf as part of its Long Range Attack Missile (LRAM) project, the core goal of which is to demonstrate a new long-range strike capability for its AH-1Z attack helicopters. The LRAM effort has been targeting a range of at least 150 nautical miles (just over 170 miles or nearly 278 kilometers), which is exponentially greater than that of the AGM-114 Hellfires and AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles (JAGM) that Marine Vipers can fire now. Though longer-range versions of the Hellfire and JAGM are in development, existing variants of both missiles have maximum ranges of under 10 miles. LRAM is feeding into a program of record called Precision Attack Strike Missile (PASM), which could consider other options beyond Red Wolf. The Marines have also said LRAM/PASM could lead to further air-launched capabilities for the AH-1Z and other Marine aircraft. Broadly speaking, this highlights how Red Wolf, as well as similar munitions, will allow platforms previously capable only of conducting direct attacks to launch standoff strikes, something that will only become more and more important in the face of expanding air defense threats. 'The opportunity that LRAM provides is the modularity that can come with it. So kinetic [and] non-kinetic capabilities,' Marine Col. Scott Shadforth said during a presentation at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition in May. 'And then we can certainly get into an open debate of, is it a weapon? Is it an air-launched effect? Is it a UAS [uncrewed aerial system; drone]? How are we defining those capabilities?' Shadforth is head of Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Expeditionary and Maritime Aviation-Advanced Development Team (XMA-ADT). The newly announced Green Wolf electronic warfare configuration would fit well with his mention of future non-kinetic possibilities. We also know that the U.S. Army has previously conducted a test involving a Red Wolf configured for communications signal relay. That service has also eyed the MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone as a launch platform in the past. As part of yesterday's announcement, L3Harris has released its own graphics depicting notional scenarios involving air, ground, and sea-launched Red Wolves and Green Wolves, as well as a potential future decoy variant, all working together. Green Wolves could be used to help locate targets, especially hostile air defense assets, by zeroing in on their signal emissions, while also working to clear a path for Red Wolves to actually strike them. Decoys could be used to further confuse and overwhelm defenders, too. Variants of the Wolf family could be layered in with additional types of munitions and other capabilities, as well. L3Harris is targeting a unit price of approximately $300,000 for members of the Wolf family once production reaches the full expected rate of around 1,000 per year. The unit cost of a much shorter-ranged JAGM is also in the $300,000 range. For further comparison, the price tag of a single stealthy AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM-ER), a much larger and longer-ranged traditional air-launched land attack cruise missile in U.S. service today, is in the $1.5 million range. The cost and production goals reflect immense interest, especially from the U.S. military, in new standoff precision strike munitions that are also relatively cheap and readily producible. All of this is being driven heavily by planning to ensure that the U.S. military has sufficient munition stockpiles ahead of any potential high-end fight in the Pacific against China, and the ability to sustain those inventories in the event the conflict becomes protracted. Lessons learned from recent U.S. operations in and around the Middle East, as well as from ongoing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, have put additional emphasis on new lower-cost capabilities that can be produced at scale. Many other countries outside of the United States have been arriving at the same conclusions when it comes to future precision munitions developments. With all this in mind, it is important to note that L3Harris is hardly the only company responding to this demand signal, which is also notably attracting a growing number of non-traditional firms outside of the established defense industry. On Wednesday, Anduril revealed new details about testing to date of its Barracuda-100M air vehicle, which is in a roughly similar class, form and function-wise, to the Red Wolf and Green Wolf. Anduril unveiled the Barracuda family, which also includes larger and longer-ranged 250 and 500 models, last year. The U.S. Army has been testing Barracuda-100M as part of a demonstration effort called High-Speed Maneuverable Missile (HSMM), which focused primarily on the development of a new Precision Target Acquisition Seeker (PTAS) capability. 'The Government developed PTAS payload is being developed to allow for passive, autonomous tracking of identified targets,' Anduril said in a press release. 'It uses video feedback to correlate and seek a previously identified target image using a Long Wave Infrared (LWIR) camera within the seeker.' In testing so far, Anduril has been air-launching Barracuda-100M from an L-29 light jet, but the company plans to conduct a series of ground-launched demonstrations later this year. A full end-to-end live-fire test is expected to come next year. Successful flight test of Barracuda-100M for the @USArmy's High Speed Maneuverable Missile high-G maneuvers, speeds over 500 knots, and 10x the range of the Hellfire missile. — Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) July 16, 2025 The Army does not currently have a formal plan to operationalize the results of the HSMM program, but there are active discussions about potential paths forward, according to Anduril. Barracuda-100M, along with the other members of the Barracuda family, could be of interest to other customers. 'You can envision … where the Barracuda 100 wants to live. So, in that Hellfire form factor is kind of the displacement,' Steve Milano, senior director for Advanced Effects at Anduril, told TWZ and other outlets during a press call earlier this week. 'Anytime that there's a need for extended range capability for roughly the same cost point you're going to have Barracuda 100 playing in that space. So both from a … mobile surface launch capability, as well as rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft.' Lockheed Martin put out new details about ongoing work on its family of Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT, pronounced 'comet') air vehicles on Wednesday, as well. The CMMT first broke cover in 2022, and is an evolution of a low-cost air vehicle concept the company had been working on before that called Speed Racer, which you can read more about here. The CMMT family now includes a CMMT-D version designed to be dropped via the Rapid Dragon palletized munition system and a CMMT-X type intended to be launched via a typical pylon on an aircraft. Rapid Dragon is a U.S. Air Force program intended to allow the service to bolster its standoff strike capacity by transforming cargo aircraft like the C-130 Hercules or C-17 Globemaster III into additional launch platforms. 'In May, a team from Orlando, Florida traveled to the Tillamook UAS Test Range on the Oregon coast to test CMMT-D, a compact cruise missile designed to deploy from air mobility aircraft like the C-130,' according to Lockheed Martin's press release earlier this week. 'They dropped a CMMT-D test missile from a Rapid Dragon pallet, which was carried by a helicopter to an altitude of 14,500 feet to simulate a parachute descent. The CMMT-D deployed its wings and entered an unpowered glide following a safe release.' 'In June, a CMMT team from Palmdale, California, traveled to the Pendleton UAS Range in Oregon to test CMMT-X, a smaller variant of the CMMT family,' the release added. 'They mounted CMMT-X to the pylon of a test aircraft and took to the skies for CMMT's first pylon launch from an airborne aircraft. The vehicle safely separated from the launch craft, deployed its wings and lit its engine to initiate powered flight.' 'Using model-based engineering, the team rapidly evolved SPEED RACER into CMMT-X, rewriting software to meet U.S. Air Force weapon open systems architecture standards and ground testing to ensure airworthiness, all within a record time of just seven months,' the release also noted. L3Harris Red Wolf and Green Wolf, Anduril's Barracuda family, and Lockheed Martin's CMMTs, and the U.S. military programs they are being developed around, represent just a portion of the low-cost precision munition projects known to be going on now in the United States. The previously secretive nature of the Wolf family underscores the likelihood of even more work being done in the classified realm. Now that Red Wolf, along with Green Wolf, are fully out in the open, even more details about that particular family of launched effects vehicles may begin to emerge. Contact the author: joe@
Business Wire
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- Business Wire
L3Harris Introduces Launched Effects Vehicles to Increase US Multi-Domain Superiority
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today debuted a pack of launched effects vehicles, demonstrating the company's ability to respond to the U.S. Department of Defense's urgent need for advanced, capable and affordable munitions it can employ across services and domains. Red Wolf TM and Green Wolf TM are the first in L3Harris' expanding family of multi-role vehicles that can easily integrate and launch from air, ground or maritime-based platforms. Red Wolf is a kinetic platform for long-range precision strikes, while Green Wolf is an electronic warfare platform equipped with electronic attack and detect, identify, locate and report capabilities. Both vehicles are flexible, modular and feature advanced software for in-flight collaboration and re-targeting. They also support swarming capability of autonomous aircraft. 'Our launched effects 'wolf pack' provides U.S. military branches – regardless of platform – with a significant advantage in closing long-range kill chains, defeating adversarial threats in challenging environments and protecting assets,' said Ed Zoiss, President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris. 'The Red Wolf and Green Wolf are lethal, modular, affordable and ready to hunt.' L3Harris designed, developed and built the vehicles over the past five years and completed more than 40 flights with them. The platforms can be recoverable, providing flexibility to develop and integrate different payloads. The company will build dozens of systems as part of low-rate initial production by the end of 2025, supported by infrastructure expansions and automation enhancements. About L3Harris Technologies L3Harris Technologies is the Trusted Disruptor in the defense industry. With customers' mission-critical needs always in mind, our employees deliver end-to-end technology solutions connecting the space, air, land, sea and cyber domains in the interest of national security. Visit for more information.
Telegraph
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Dutch farmers reaching for their guns after EU backed down on wolf crisis
Rendered dormant for over a century, Dutch farmers are once again calling for the 'wolvenjager' – the wolf hunter – to be unleashed. Wolves were driven out of the Netherlands in the late 19th century, but after the feared predators were deemed untouchable under a 'strict protection' order issued by the EU in 2015, they have returned. Now, wolves are ravaging livestock across the country's farms every day, leaving meadows peppered with mutilated carcasses. A sharp rise in attacks on livestock and pets – including on Ursula von der Leyen's own beloved pony – convinced the EU to downgrade the protection order in December, placing the onus on member states to devise their own responses to wolves from March onwards. The decision has left rival groups jostling for the ear of Dutch politicians: farmers, who are in favour of culling, and animal rights groups, who fear an open season on the animals. Officials have as of yet provided no clear direction on how to handle the nine packs of wolves roaming the Netherlands. Eduard van Adrichem, a wizened hunter sporting a cowboy hat and an unkempt grey beard, sees culling the increasingly emboldened wolf as a solemn duty to his neighbours. 'It's not the wolf's fault, he is an opportunist. It's nature, I don't blame him for that, but I will shoot him for that,' the 67-year-old said, his gnarled hands gripping a rifle with familiarity. 'I would kill them all. It's my obligation to save Holland from a disaster.' On the farms of Gelderland, Utrecht and Drenthe, WhatsApp groups deliver news of sightings and savage attacks. 'I will quit breeding sheep' Boudewijn Kooijman, from Limburg, orchestrates the Green Wolf warning system, sending on a flurry of reports from farmers complete with gory photographic evidence. 'You never get used to it. I take it home. I can't sleep,' the 65-year-old says after arriving at the scene of a grisly overnight attack on a fellow farmer's flock in Emst. Once the proud owner of 1,500 Maasduinenschaap (a breed of sheep), which his family has farmed since the 1800s, Mr Kooijman has seen his numbers dwindle to around 500. 'It is my life, but I can't do it anymore. For me it is clear that I will quit breeding sheep,' he said in front of a tractor loader bearing five caracasses, a lamb visible amidst the entrails hanging from a mother's torn belly. The marauding wolf, Mr Kooijman explained, ravages sheep – ripping the throat and bowels – but rarely eating its prey, leaving behind a gruesome and often half-dead surplus. Tanja Witman, with anguish sketched into her face, said there have been four attacks on her farm in two years, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 sheep. 'The fences don't work, the wolves jump over. We need to start shooting,' her husband Erik said. 'If it continues like this, it will not be possible to keep sheep in this area.' Further north in Drenthe, Jos Ubels, a 38-year-old cattle farmer, dismissed the anti-wolf fences subsidised by the government as a waste of time and money. 'You do it because otherwise they say you are not trying but we know it does not work,' he said. Such fences threaten to eradicate an age-old symbiotic relationship whereby farmers lend sheep to their fellow dairy farmers, rotating through fields for three days at a time to improve the quality of next season's grass. 'They are destroying the system, they don't understand,' Mr Ubels added. He explained that the choice between leaving sheep vulnerable and taking on back-breaking labour to install and maintain fences, for which the government does not offer compensation, renders the tradition untenable. Farmers have also warned the more fencing is laid down, the harder it is for wildlife such as deer and boar to migrate across the Netherlands. Mr Ubels, no stranger to activism as vice president of the Farmers Defence Force, said he was amongst the first to sound the alarm over wolf attacks after 14 of his calves went missing. 'We found a carcass. It was shocking. There was only the spine and a severed head,' he said, adding that the authorities initially refused to send a team to collect DNA samples, claiming that a wolf would never attack cattle. An organisation known as Bij12 must obtain DNA matching a wolf on the government's database for the farmer to be paid compensation – an amount which farmers feel does not go far enough. Mr Ubels responded by vowing to deliver the mutilated remains of a heifer through the local authorities' window. After alerting local media, who then phoned the province to ask what was happening, investigators confirmed wolves were responsible. The cattle farmer fears similarities in the response that wolves will never attack humans. On Friday, two ponies were found dead, dismembered and uneaten in Hierden, Gelderland, posing further concern over wolves' broadening appetite. 'My children are scared,' Mr Ubels said, adding that, given the opportunity, as a licensed hunter he would not think twice before reaching for his gun. Last summer, the province of Utrecht was rocked by two cases of children being bitten and knocked over by wolves, which prompted the local authorities to issue urgent advice for children to stay out of the forests. 'It is a question of time before a wolf attacks a child. Little Red Riding Hood will no longer be just a fairy tale,' warned Caroline van der Plas, leader of the farmers' party BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB). It is a fear shared by Mr van Adrichem, who said wolves prey on easy targets. 'He will learn [that] after sheep that there are children and men, he will learn that,' the hunter warned. Mr van Adrichem, his shoulders resting on the fur pelt of a black bear he shot with a Winchester lever-action rifle in Canada, does not see himself as above nature, but rather as part of it. 'I adore the wolf, I cannot hate him. I would not even hate him if he took one of my dogs. But I would kill him,' the hunter said. 'I worship the wolf, but Holland is too small for him.' Fed-up farmers have held demonstrations in Emmen, Ede and Arnhem this month, the latter featuring mock wolf hangings. 'Dividing the population' Vets have also vented their frustrations at being tasked with euthanising swathes of maimed animals. 'This is not why I became a vet. It is a tragedy. [The wolves] simply have to be shot,' Hans Veenstra, a vet from Wolvega, Friesland, told Dutch outlet AD. The disparity in attitudes towards wolves has fuelled a widening rift between rural and urban areas. Eric Kemperman, who represents the BBB in both the national parliament as a senator and the Gelderland local government, has long advocated for shooting wolves that attack livestock. 'People in the cities don't know how serious it is, it is dividing the population,' he told The Telegraph. 'It's getting out of hand, every day there are attacks'. A hunter himself, Mr Kemperman said his party was 'waiting' for the right case in Gelderland to call on the mayor to enact local legislation which would permit the wolf to be shot. 'We will end up in court immediately, that is how it works here, but we want to challenge it,' he said. In July 2023, the mayor for Westerwald authorised the killing of a wolf which had bitten a farmer near Wapse in Drenthe – an action which could otherwise result in a prison sentence or a fine. Faunabescherming, an animal protection group, brought a lawsuit soon after the wolf was shot. Earlier this month, a court sided with Faunabescherming over the provincial authorities of Gelderland, which had issued a permit allowing rangers to deter wolves with paintball guns. Wolves neared extinction in the mid-20th century in Europe but recovered after being granted strict protection status by the Berne Convention in 1982 and the EU Habitats Directive in 1992. Dr Joanna Swabe, senior director of public affairs at Humane Society International/Europe (HSI) fears the decision could mark a watershed moment for animals without natural predators. 'The EU decision-making on lowering legal protections for wolves sets a dangerous precedent for other European species, such as bears and lynx,' she said. Léa Badoz, a wildlife programme officer at Eurogroup for Animals, believes the wolf has been unfairly tainted as a bogeyman. 'The wolf is unfortunately the latest political pawn, a victim of misinformation,' she said. '[The downgrading] is based on misconceptions and threatens wolves, while failing to provide real support for farmers and local communities, many of whom are in favour of coexistence with the wolf.' There have been no verified fatal attacks on humans in the last 40 years. Jakob Leidekker, head of operations at De Hoge Veluwe National Park, believes the anger of animal rights groups is misguided, citing the loss of wildlife at the hands of the wolf. 'For the profit of one species, do we need to lose other species? Our main concern is maintaining biodiversity,' Mr Leidekker said, explaining that the introduction of wolves into the national park in 2021 decimated the grazing mouflon population. The mouflon are an integral rung of the food chain, keeping the spread of Scots Pine at bay and propping up the poor-quality soil, without which Mr Leidekker predicts all his heathlands would disappear within 20 years. Mr Leidekker added that wolves were becoming braver with every human interaction. Of the two children attacked last year, he noted: 'This is just the beginning.'
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Dutch farmers reaching for their guns after EU backed down on wolf crisis
Rendered dormant for over a century, Dutch farmers are once again calling for the 'wolvenjager' – the wolf hunter – to be unleashed. Wolves were driven out of the Netherlands in the late 19th century, but after the feared predators were deemed untouchable under a 'strict protection' order issued by the EU in 2015, they have returned. Now, wolves are ravaging livestock across the country's farms every day, leaving meadows peppered with mutilated carcasses. A sharp rise in attacks on livestock and pets – including on Ursula von der Leyen's own beloved pony – convinced the EU to downgrade the protection order in December, placing the onus on member states to devise their own responses to wolves from March onwards. The decision has left rival groups jostling for the ear of Dutch politicians: farmers, who are in favour of culling, and animal rights groups, who fear an open season on the animals. Officials have as of yet provided no clear direction on how to handle the nine packs of wolves roaming the Netherlands. Eduard van Adrichem, a wizened hunter sporting a cowboy hat and an unkempt grey beard, sees culling the increasingly emboldened wolf as a solemn duty to his neighbours. 'It's not the wolf's fault, he is an opportunist. It's nature, I don't blame him for that, but I will shoot him for that,' the 67-year-old said, his gnarled hands gripping a rifle with familiarity. 'I would kill them all. It's my obligation to save Holland from a disaster.' On the farms of Gelderland, Utrecht and Drenthe, WhatsApp groups deliver news of sightings and savage attacks. Boudewijn Kooijman, from Limburg, orchestrates the Green Wolf warning system, sending on a flurry of reports from farmers complete with gory photographic evidence. 'You never get used to it. I take it home. I can't sleep,' the 65-year-old says after arriving at the scene of a grisly overnight attack on a fellow farmer's flock in Emst. Once the proud owner of 1,500 Maasduinenschaap (a breed of sheep), which his family has farmed since the 1800s, Mr Kooijman has seen his numbers dwindle to around 500. 'It is my life, but I can't do it anymore. For me it is clear that I will quit breeding sheep,' he said in front of a tractor loader bearing five caracasses, a lamb visible amidst the entrails hanging from a mother's torn belly. The marauding wolf, Mr Kooijman explained, ravages sheep – ripping the throat and bowels – but rarely eating its prey, leaving behind a gruesome and often half-dead surplus. Tanja Witman, with anguish sketched into her face, said there have been four attacks on her farm in two years, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 sheep. 'The fences don't work, the wolves jump over. We need to start shooting,' her husband Erik said. 'If it continues like this, it will not be possible to keep sheep in this area.' Further north in Drenthe, Jos Ubels, a 38-year-old cattle farmer, dismissed the anti-wolf fences subsidised by the government as a waste of time and money. 'You do it because otherwise they say you are not trying but we know it does not work,' he said. Such fences threaten to eradicate an age-old symbiotic relationship whereby farmers lend sheep to their fellow dairy farmers, rotating through fields for three days at a time to improve the quality of next season's grass. 'They are destroying the system, they don't understand,' Mr Ubels added. He explained that the choice between leaving sheep vulnerable and taking on back-breaking labour to install and maintain fences, for which the government does not offer compensation, renders the tradition untenable. Farmers have also warned the more fencing is laid down, the harder it is for wildlife such as deer and boar to migrate across the Netherlands. Mr Ubels, no stranger to activism as vice president of the Farmers Defence Force, said he was amongst the first to sound the alarm over wolf attacks after 14 of his calves went missing. 'We found a carcass. It was shocking. There was only the spine and a severed head,' he said, adding that the authorities initially refused to send a team to collect DNA samples, claiming that a wolf would never attack cattle. An organisation known as Bij12 must obtain DNA matching a wolf on the government's database for the farmer to be paid compensation – an amount which farmers feel does not go far enough. Mr Ubels responded by vowing to deliver the mutilated remains of a heifer through the local authorities' window. After alerting local media, who then phoned the province to ask what was happening, investigators confirmed wolves were responsible. The cattle farmer fears similarities in the response that wolves will never attack humans. On Friday, two ponies were found dead, dismembered and uneaten in Hierden, Gelderland, posing further concern over wolves' broadening appetite. 'My children are scared,' Mr Ubels said, adding that, given the opportunity, as a licensed hunter he would not think twice before reaching for his gun. Last summer, the province of Utrecht was rocked by two cases of children being bitten and knocked over by wolves, which prompted the local authorities to issue urgent advice for children to stay out of the forests. 'It is a question of time before a wolf attacks a child. Little Red Riding Hood will no longer be just a fairy tale,' warned Caroline van der Plas, leader of the farmers' party BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB). It is a fear shared by Mr van Adrichem, who said wolves prey on easy targets. 'He will learn [that] after sheep that there are children and men, he will learn that,' the hunter warned. Mr van Adrichem, his shoulders resting on the fur pelt of a black bear he shot with a Winchester lever-action rifle in Canada, does not see himself as above nature, but rather as part of it. 'I adore the wolf, I cannot hate him. I would not even hate him if he took one of my dogs. But I would kill him,' the hunter said. 'I worship the wolf, but Holland is too small for him.' Fed-up farmers have held demonstrations in Emmen, Ede and Arnhem this month, the latter featuring mock wolf hangings. Vets have also vented their frustrations at being tasked with euthanising swathes of maimed animals. 'This is not why I became a vet. It is a tragedy. [The wolves] simply have to be shot,' Hans Veenstra, a vet from Wolvega, Friesland, told Dutch outlet AD. The disparity in attitudes towards wolves has fuelled a widening rift between rural and urban areas. Eric Kemperman, who represents the BBB in both the national parliament as a senator and the Gelderland local government, has long advocated for shooting wolves that attack livestock. 'People in the cities don't know how serious it is, it is dividing the population,' he told The Telegraph. 'It's getting out of hand, every day there are attacks'. A hunter himself, Mr Kemperman said his party was 'waiting' for the right case in Gelderland to call on the mayor to enact local legislation which would permit the wolf to be shot. 'We will end up in court immediately, that is how it works here, but we want to challenge it,' he said. In July 2023, the mayor for Westerwald authorised the killing of a wolf which had bitten a farmer near Wapse in Drenthe – an action which could otherwise result in a prison sentence or a fine. Faunabescherming, an animal protection group, brought a lawsuit soon after the wolf was shot. Earlier this month, a court sided with Faunabescherming over the provincial authorities of Gelderland, which had issued a permit allowing rangers to deter wolves with paintball guns. Wolves neared extinction in the mid-20th century in Europe but recovered after being granted strict protection status by the Berne Convention in 1982 and the EU Habitats Directive in 1992. Dr Joanna Swabe, senior director of public affairs at Humane Society International/Europe (HSI) fears the decision could mark a watershed moment for animals without natural predators. 'The EU decision-making on lowering legal protections for wolves sets a dangerous precedent for other European species, such as bears and lynx,' she said. Léa Badoz, a wildlife programme officer at Eurogroup for Animals, believes the wolf has been unfairly tainted as a bogeyman. 'The wolf is unfortunately the latest political pawn, a victim of misinformation,' she said. '[The downgrading] is based on misconceptions and threatens wolves, while failing to provide real support for farmers and local communities, many of whom are in favour of coexistence with the wolf.' There have been no verified fatal attacks on humans in the last 40 years. Jakob Leidekker, head of operations at De Hoge Veluwe National Park, believes the anger of animal rights groups is misguided, citing the loss of wildlife at the hands of the wolf. 'For the profit of one species, do we need to lose other species? Our main concern is maintaining biodiversity,' Mr Leidekker said, explaining that the introduction of wolves into the national park in 2021 decimated the grazing mouflon population. The mouflon are an integral rung of the food chain, keeping the spread of Scots Pine at bay and propping up the poor-quality soil, without which Mr Leidekker predicts all his heathlands would disappear within 20 years. Mr Leidekker added that wolves were becoming braver with every human interaction. Of the two children attacked last year, he noted: 'This is just the beginning.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
