I it is generally assumed that NZ will not have to counter a conventional air attack on it’s soil. If we assume we will not be attacked from the air a dedicated air defence fighter will not be needed. I can't but help being worried by NZ troops taking part in peacemaking/keeping operations all over the world. In Afghanistan and Iraq we have the US and or Brits etc to look after our troops. What happens when we have to do similar peacekeeping operations closer to home. What happens when we have to provide aircover to our own troops and the US, et al are not in the vicinity? In this case the F-18 option becomes viable. Good operational load and compatible with Australian F-18's?
If NZ gets fighters again, what should we get?
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How about buying some RAF Tornado F.3's
They will be scrapped soon when replaced by the Typhoon, so i am sure the UK govt would sell some for a knock down price!! They still have lots of potential, some were recently upgraded to carry the ALARM Anti-radiation missile.
There was talk of them being upgraded to carry Laser Guided bombs, but in the age of low defence spending i dout the UK govt will find funds to do it
They will be scrapped soon when replaced by the Typhoon, so i am sure the UK govt would sell some for a knock down price!! They still have lots of potential, some were recently upgraded to carry the ALARM Anti-radiation missile.
There was talk of them being upgraded to carry Laser Guided bombs, but in the age of low defence spending i dout the UK govt will find funds to do it
Well today it was in the news that she has appointed Winston Peters as the foreign affairs minister (which was suprising in itself), and apparently its really left the Green party on its own..EnigmaNZ said:
So i got to thinking that from a defence point of view its quite a good situation, obviously if the Green party have less say in the current majorities decisions on defence there will be less negative views (if this is infact the situation in the NZ parliament, im not entirely sure on if it means the Greens will still have a voice or what, its bloody confusing lol)
Although as i understand it Helen Clark seems to be quite anti military anyway, but i figure without the green party there to have a say its one less negative point of view
Isn't Winston an odd choice for Foreign Affairs? Or has he settled down a bit??pepsi said:
An odd choice!gf0012-aust said:
He will be outside Cabinet, so still able to criticise the govt, how this will work in his role as FA Minister remains to be seen, but his previous political speeches have pretty much all been on internal politics, so I'm not sure what his knowledge is on international affairs.
His party had a pollicy of increasing defence funding to 2% of GDP and one of his MPs is Ron Mark an ex army captain who is well respected for his views on defence.
United Future the other party that got a ministerial post is also more pro defence, so it will be interesting to see what eventuates in the defence arena.
I think odd is an understatementgf0012-aust said:
I imagine he is under very strict rules to not be his old self in this role, i imagine Helen Clark still wants her big FTA with China, so i can't imagine her giving Winston too much of a role in that if he is just going to tell them how much he hates them heh
He has taken over the role from Phil Goff who now has taken the Trade Negotiation role, which combined with his foreign affairs skills and experience should come in handy especially with that China FTA thing. But as well as that, he has also taken over Defence, i dont know what that could mean for the NZDF but it will be interesting to see what his views are on the defence issues
Not sure what the Kiwis on here think of Goff, but I'd gladly swap Alexander Downer for Goff any day of the week...pepsi said:
While im not a labour voter i do think that Phil Goff is good a FM. I think he represents NZ in a competent manner and has a good repour with other foreign dignitaries. The jury is still out on Winston but i guess we will see what hes got sooner rather than later. APEC and Pacific Island Forum are coming up.
Winston and the media havnt been the best of friends so it will be interesting to see how he handles a role where liaising with the media will be a rather crucial part of his job description particularly in the event of a crisis.
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