The Netherlands is finally saying “doei” to its iconic monthly air raid sirens; the luchtalarm (air raid alarm) network will be switched off for good in 2028.
If you’ve lived in the Netherlands for longer than a few weeks, you’re likely no stranger to that ear-splitting wail on the first Monday of every month. However, as of May 20, 2026, the luchtalarm’s days are numbered.
Justice and Security Minister David van Weel (VVD) wrote in to parliament this week to confirm that the country’s network of roughly 4,200 siren poles will be phased out from January 1, 2028.
Why is the luchtalarm disappearing?
Sadly, age isn’t just a number — as NOS reports, the cabinet had long been weighing plans for a modern replacement siren network.
READ MORE | Monthly alarm sirens in the Netherlands: what you need to know
Rather than pour money into maintaining ageing infrastructure indefinitely, van Weel has decided the phase-out will go ahead as previously planned.
“Right now it’s quite a dumb device — you press a button and a siren goes off,” van Weel tells NOS. “What you want is to be able to give people much more targeted information.”
So, what will be replacing the air raid sirens?
Look no further than the humble NL Alert, which sends emergency alerts straight to your Dutch mobile device.
As of 2026, this emergency notification system reaches around 92% of the population (a figure that has been stable for several years) and can deliver targeted messages explaining exactly what is happening and what to do, rather than just sounding a generic alarm.
However, not everyone’s convinced
Several MPs pushed back after Van Weel’s letter, pointing out that mobile networks can fail, which is exactly the kind of scenario where a backup alarm matters most.
As Rijnmond reports, local politicians in the Rotterdam region have also raised concerns, warning that dropping the physical sirens makes crisis communication more vulnerable, not less.
Meanwhile, experts have previously flagged that people who are non-Dutch-speaking or have low literacy may be harder to reach through text-only alerts.
Van Weel acknowledges these concerns, confirming that the Justice Ministry and the Defence Ministry are already working on a “minimal civil-military warning chain” as a fallback. What that looks like in practice, unfortunately, is still unclear.
Will you miss the monthly sirens, or are you happy to see them go? Let us know in the comments.
No why??? We need it … on the phone doesn’t work for everyone and always so … sirens forever!!!
though i can understand the annoyance of the alarm, imo it’s a good reminder of the reality where we live, waterland.
Why not have both? In case of the phone failure- there will still be a backup… Add a speaker to tell what is happening.. Do both…