Colonel Rienk Sijbrandi

Colonel Rienk Sijbrandi began his military career in 1986 as a conscript with the Dutch Army before commissioning as a Field Artillery Officer in 1990. Over more than three decades of service, he has held a wide range of operational, command, and staff appointments across the Netherlands Army, NATO, and multinational headquarters. His operational experience includes deployments to Bosnia as a Weapon Location Radar Battery Commander and later as an operations officer at Multinational Division South-West Headquarters. He subsequently served with 11 Air Assault Brigade as Chief of Joint Fires Support and commanded Alpha "Wolves" Battery, 14 Field Artillery Battalion, leading the first Dutch artillery unit equipped with the Panzerhaubitze 2000. In 2006, he deployed to Afghanistan with Task Force Uruzgan as Chief Joint Fires. Colonel Sijbrandi has commanded 41 Netherlands Artillery Battalion and the Korps Rijdende Artillerie, and in 2019 deployed to Iraq as Commander of the Netherlands Capacity Building Mission Iraq (CBMI). His senior staff appointments have included roles within the Dutch Ministry of Defence, HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), and advanced warfare education. Promoted to colonel in 2022, he currently serves as ACOS Joint Fires, Effects & Targeting at HQ 1 German-Netherlands Corps, where he is responsible for integrating joint and multi-domain effects in support of corps-level operations.