I'm not ignoring any point unless you know something about NZ having been/being invaded that I must have somehow missed? I'm going off actual fact, we did not use the jets and we have not needed the jets since axing them, it's not rocket science, nothing even remotely close to NZ being threatened has literally happened in a lifetime! We havnt had this detterant you speak of for over 2 decades so perhaps no one got the memo and still believe we have some vintage skyhawks or vanilla F16s so they are still dettered from invading by mistake? Or, maybe NZs just not high on the invasion list it would seem so we are not actually dettering, anything or anyone? The way you are talking is as if there has been a spate of invasions around the place and any country without jets has been snapped up, by someone (we're still figuring that one out) and we are about to be next! Guess I missed that one also.
Ukraine has jets, hasn't dettered Russia. It's as if Russia doesn't even care right? Guess they don't follow the invasion rulebook either, badass.
It is a government services department, thats how they get to call the shots, literally. Call it want you want if it makes you feel better, it still doesn't make a squadron of jets in NZ any more viable, likely or warranted.
And this is a rather classic example of 'sea blindness' by making the false argument revolving around an invasion of NZ. There are so many other ways that adversaries, both state actors and non-state actors, can threaten or even harm NZ and NZ interests.
Having a properly resourced NZDF can help NZ both directly mitigate risks from current and future adversaries, but also contribute to both global rules based order as well as the collective security of NZ friends, allies and trading partners.
Attempting to compare the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, which involves a largely land-based conflict between two nations that share a land border is only really relevant if one it talking at a tactical level. The strategic situation that Ukraine finds itself in is quite different from NZ and therefore what the two nations might need for security would be quite different.
BTW right off the top of my head I can think of at least four security situations which NZ has faced since I joined DT, which did not occur on NZ proper, within the confines of territorial waters or even the EEZ, where unfortunately NZ had little ability to respond because of how limited the NZDF had become in terms of overall capabilities. IIRC in one instance, a planned evac mission had to be scrubbed because there was only a single platform available to deploy and that suffered an equipment malfunction when it attempted to deploy.
One needs to recognize that NZ's interests do not end at the waters edge, or even at the edge of the EEZ, but instead extend well beyond that, because NZ is both involved in and dependent on global trade, since NZ is not totally self-sufficient. One cannot honestly and rationally claim otherwise.
Side note: I lack specific proof, but I strongly suspect that the conflict going on in Ukraine has had a negative impact on global food production and distribution, either through a reduction on grain harvests, issues with grain distribution, or both. This in turn would likely have lead to an increase in global prices for at least some foodstuffs. Now NZ being a global dairy producer might have in some ways been able to profit off of this, it is also quite possible that the reduced availability and increased prices for grains would have raised some food prices within NZ. Even if this were not the case, NZ would likely have been negatively impacted because some of NZ's trading partners would have either had reduced financial resources to trade with NZ due to having to spend more coin on food, or because of an increase in political and social instability within those trading partners due to the reduced availability and increased costs for grain and related food products.
Since China has been mentioned repeatedly consider the impact of a conflict between mainland China and Taiwan. Even if no other nations become involved, such a conflict would almost certainly have some significant negative impacts upon global trade, simply because of how dominant Taiwan is in the global production of advanced chips. If Taiwanese chip foundries were to be damaged or destroyed within the next few years (i.e. before some of the new chip foundries being built outside of Taiwan come online) then there would very rapidly be a global chip and semiconductor shortage. Given how many devices now have chips and PCB's built into them, we are talking about production for many modern devices would be either reduced or outright cease completely. If there was another global chip shortage, NZ would be negatively impacted, and should an armed conflict erupt between Taiwan and mainland China in the near future, it is almost certain that such a chip shortage would occur.
