A sad day in naval history because of the closure of Naval Air Station Valkenburg near Katwijk. In all its wisdom the dutch goverment had decided that it was time to shutdown NAS Valkenburg and sell its MPA's and use the ground to build houses. Unfortunately for us it also means the end of an era for the Royal Netherlands Navy  because it has no fixed wing aircraft anymore in its inventory and has to HIRE additional aircaft to do its patroling duties in the Carabian region and the dutch part of the Northsea.
	Germany(7) and Portugal(5) bought our MPA's. Germany's Orions all were already the upgraded ones but Portugal didn't get them all upgraded. There were already a few in longterm storage at the factory of OGMA in Portugal so they were transfered overthere to them. These picture you see on this page are from the farewell ceremony for naval squadrons with whom Valkenburg worked a lot and were able to sent over an aircraft and some historic dutch aircraft which flew with VSQ320 or 321.

Jan Eenling 2008©