Royal New Zealand Air Force

[ASSAIL]

I’ve beaten this drum before but…and I believe the NZ problems are replicated in Oz,
Defence has become even more technical over time and “no suitable” applicants means they can’t find trade qualified recruits, so what was the brilliant answer?
Shut down the service Trade Schools where a pipeline of “suitable” personnel were produced.
It’s not as if these skills were lost to the outside community. After a service period of say 9 years including training, the skilled members may have stayed in the service or they left and contributed their competencies to the national economy that is desperately short of experienced tradesmen.
What were they thinking? I know, every kid has to attend a university to acquire (apart from the professions) some useless unemployable degree in nose picking.

 

[ngatimozart]

The rumor at the time was that when piggy appointed a minister he required a signed but undated resignation letter from the said minister. absolutely no disagreement with piggy was allowed

I do know that pigs can fly because twice i was on the same aircraft as him.

 

[At lakes]

i have met him twice once when I was wandering around Parliament delivering signals and once when he opened a facility i was working at, in his defense he is very entertaining to talk and listen to, actually you just listen to him and you nodded your head like a bobble on the dash board of a valiant.

 

[recce.k1]

Just came across photos from ZK Aviation covering the recent Poseidon arrival (NZ4803), this one taxing past in front of their new hangers still under construction (due for completion later this year), have posted this as it gives us our first good look at them.



Source.

 

[RubiconNZ]

Nice post mate thanks.
Space wise one hangared each and maybe a partial of another?
Or two hangared in each? A bit hard to tell.

 

[recce.k1]

Nice post mate thanks.
Space wise one hangared each and maybe a partial of another?
Or two hangared in each? A bit hard to tell.

I probably should have said "hangers and facilities", as the infrastructure includes: two hangers and offices, warehouse and parts store, Tactical Operations Centre (TOC), Mobile Tactical Operations Centre (MTOC), Training and Simulator Building, Aircraft Ground Support Building.

They appear to be single hangers according to the graphics and other info previously posted here by people, some articles quote dimensions. Eg:

"The hangers spans 54m" (source), with a much clearer graphic of the complex (the building shown behind to the right is the MSS or Maintenance Support Squadron complex).

The overall length is "180m" i.e. including the other facility spaces (source and another source). By "length" I think we can take that to mean "width" if referencing the photo in the post above.

If "hanger architecture" is of interest to you, search for the RAF's Poseidon hanger complex at Lossiemouth - another interesting purpose built facility!

 

[At lakes]

Is it a bird, is it a plane? Royal NZ Air Force's phallic flight path

An Air Force spokesperson said the phallic symbol drawn the tracking radar was purely unintentional. The aircraft was practicing steep turns.

 

[At lakes]

MSN

It looks like the press are trying to apply a little bit of pressure on the ruling class to get the 757 replaced early . This is the third story about having to take a spare in case the first one breaks down i have seen in the last two weeks. Maybe they dont like rocking up in an 30year old plus jet on their overseas jolly's

 

[ngatimozart]

MSN

It looks like the press are trying to apply a little bit of pressure on the ruling class to get the 757 replaced early . This is the third story about having to take a spare in case the first one breaks down i have seen in the last two weeks. Maybe they dont like rocking up in an 30year old plus jet on their overseas jolly's

Yep there's been a bit of a silly frenzy about it all. The problem is not so much the aircraft, but the fact that there isn't enough of them. They should've bought and flown three and utilised them more. They were to stingy to install self protection suites on the aircraft and as a result they couldn't fly them into Afghanistan when we were there. They had to send a C130 to the Middle East as well, just so that they could fly into Afghanistan. It's the perennial NZ pollie and Treasury option: only buy the absolute bare minimum.

 

[Nighthawk.NZ]

MSN

It looks like the press are trying to apply a little bit of pressure on the ruling class to get the 757 replaced early . This is the third story about having to take a spare in case the first one breaks down i have seen in the last two weeks. Maybe they dont like rocking up in an 30year old plus jet on their overseas jolly's

I have seen four or five different stories... and you should see the toxic twitter enviroment and its toxic tweets... :-/

 

[recce.k1]

Poseidon's are go! On cue as planned for 1 July the Poseidon's are now available for operational tasking.

New Zealand's P-8A Poseidon fleet now operational - CONTACT magazine

Share the post "New Zealand’s P-8A Poseidon fleet now operational" FacebookLinkedInPinterestTwitterShare…Email After four years preparing to operate and maintain the

www.contactairlandandsea.com

Stuff

www.stuff.co.nz

Just a minor quibble about the last article, the fourth Poseidon is actually still in the US, however it has completed its third test flight (on 28 June - US time) and IIRC should be delivered this month.

 

[recce.k1]

Drone flyover NZ4804 in the US yesterday. The platforms sited at the wingtips presumably for working at heights, but more or less totally covered ... from the elements or perhaps to minimise light intrusion (eg for equipment calibration purposes)?

Source:

 

[Nighthawk.NZ]

Fourth and final P8a delivered... just need another 2 at least (blah blah blah)...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1680786498688540673

 

[kiwi in exile]

Latest RNZAF news has a brief article about the King Airs doing fishery patrolls between the p3s being withdrawn and the P8s being operational.

Of interest because some have suggested the King Airs as an EMAC candidate.
Article highlights:
- max 3 & 1/2 hrs flights
-King Airs are cramped- you cant stand up
- 2 x fisheries patrols/month. Each patrol is 3-4 flights/2 days

Seems a waste to task our 4 (only 4) P8s with fisheries patrols. While there may be some benefit in fisheries patrols as opportunity to train for other missions, the use of the p8s seems expensive and means time away from training for war. Especially if 1 of the four is deployed to the south china seas for instance. (I know china is blurring the lines between fishing fleets and military activity- so this is a gray area).

From memory the EMAC idea emereged from the realisation the the Clarks govts decision to use the p3s as a whole of govt asset (fisheries and customs patroll, SAR, etc) rather than a dedicated sub hunter/war fighter was perhaps not the best, most economical use of our most advanced air force asset. Arguably this was a political as much as economic move- more hours for Min Fisheries etc, less hours on military exercises- extracting greater non military value from the military assests while at the same time moving them more away from (traing for) war fighting.

Andrew Little on Q and A has stated that he is open to dromes for ISR. Fingers crossed for Sea Guardian.

 

[Nighthawk.NZ]

End of an Era
I will miss hearing the buzz of the P-3 Orion flying over every so often.

Appears they are trying to sell the remaining 5. Not sure to who or who would want them.

End of an era: Air force Orion takes a road trip from Woodbourne to Wigram

 

[recce.k1]

End of an Era
I will miss hearing the buzz of the P-3 Orion flying over every so often.

Appears they are trying to sell the remaining 5. Not sure to who or who would want them.

End of an era: Air force Orion takes a road trip from Woodbourne to Wigram

Wonder what's happening to the Elta EL/M 2022A(V)3 radars, if they will be kept could they be re-fitted to a medium twin engine turboprop (CN295/Q300 etc) for future EMAC project type use? (Noting the limitations of the Kingair, size wise, as per above)!

Quizzed about the air-to-air mode of the P-3K2’s new Elta EL/M 2022A(V)3 radar and how the system performs, WGCDR Lovatt replied, “We could turn the radar on, on the flight-line [in Texas], and immediately have 500-800 airborne targets. It’s probably the busiest airspace I have flown in, so the air-to-air mode was really useful from a flight safety perspective.

Projects:P-3K2 Orion arrives home | ADM June 2011 - Australian Defence Magazine

There was neither brass band nor dry ice at the welcome home ceremony for the prototype Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Orion P-3K2 on 2 May, but there was no shortage of compliments.

www.australiandefence.com.au

They still appear to be current.

 

[John Fedup]

End of an Era
I will miss hearing the buzz of the P-3 Orion flying over every so often.

Appears they are trying to sell the remaining 5. Not sure to who or who would want them.

End of an era: Air force Orion takes a road trip from Woodbourne to Wigram

If your former PM was still in office she might have been to dump them off to junior’s RCAF.

 

[Nighthawk.NZ]

They still appear to be current.

They were upgraded before we got the P-8a's as a stop gap...

 

[JohnJT]

End of an Era
I will miss hearing the buzz of the P-3 Orion flying over every so often.

Appears they are trying to sell the remaining 5. Not sure to who or who would want them.

End of an era: Air force Orion takes a road trip from Woodbourne to Wigram

Argentina would probably take them.
Not sure if the UK would care enough to try to block?

 

[Nighthawk.NZ]

Just to clarify.. . When i said

They were upgraded before we got the P-8a's as a stop gap...

I meant the P3s in general and to be honest i don't think the upgrades covered radar etc but more the asw acoustics etc

Boeing completes upgrade of RNZAF P-3K2 Orion MPAs - Naval News

Delivered under a US$22 million contract to enhance the nation’s airborne anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability, this is the first time the technology has been installed on P-3 Orion aircraft anywhere in the world. First awarded in late 2016, the project included upgrades and modifications to...

www.navalnews.com