NZDF General discussion thread

RobWilliams

Super Moderator
Staff member
Sea Ceptor is a short range missile and doesn't have the range of ESSM. However it is better than the Sea Sparrow it is replacing in the RNZN and is able to attack fast surface craft which ESSM cannot do at the moment. The British Navy is known as the Royal Navy (RN) and nothing else.
And is a much lighter system overall which we've covered a couple of times in the forum, the sort of update which - when a ship is limited on weight - can be good to keep older ships up to date with respect to a PDMS.

Soft launch, lighter, removing unnecessary illuminators and so on.
 

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
One small quibble, I believe ESSM does indeed have anti-surface capabilities - I've seen a picture provided by Abe of a small surface target being absolutely wrecked by one such missile. Other than that, agree with everything you've said.
Ah I stand corrected. I'd read somewhere a whiles back that ESSM wasn't getting that capability until 2020, so was basing comment on that.
 

Bonza

Super Moderator
Staff member
Ah I stand corrected. I'd read somewhere a whiles back that ESSM wasn't getting that capability until 2020, so was basing comment on that.
CB90 would probably be the best man to ask, but as far as I've read ESSM can essentially hit anything you can bounce a radar return off of. Much bigger than Sea Ceptor too, so probably better for surface targets - although I suspect either option is an expensive way to sink small vessels! As far as larger targets go I think you could only fire a volley of them and hope for a mission kill. Either way, both of them have the capability. So does Standard and SeaRAM.
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
....................so do your research.
Note Waylanders blue tag - that denotes someone who is a military and/or mil industry professional. People with a blue DefProf tag are also credentialed and checked before getting that tag

He happens to be a highly respected and regarded member of this forum due to the insight and knowledge that he brings through actual experience.

So before you wander off and start lecturing others about doing research it would pay to understand that DefProfs have recognised experience and expertise that most others would just dream about getting.

I suggest that you check your behaviour and attitude a tad because you'll have a short life on here if you repeat that kind of behaviour
 

Todjaeger

Potstirrer
CB90 would probably be the best man to ask, but as far as I've read ESSM can essentially hit anything you can bounce a radar return off of. Much bigger than Sea Ceptor too, so probably better for surface targets - although I suspect either option is an expensive way to sink small vessels! As far as larger targets go I think you could only fire a volley of them and hope for a mission kill. Either way, both of them have the capability. So does Standard and SeaRAM.
Going a little OT from the RNZN, but while using things like ESSM, Sea Ceptor, and SeaRAM are expensive ways to kill a FIAC, my understanding is that the drive for such a capability was after it was recognized how much damage one could do if allowed too close. Echoes of the USS Cole bombing (granted, there was a ROE issue and lack of SA or concern) and the time and cost to repair such vessel make the cost of ESSM or Sea Ceptor relatively minor, even though the munitions might cost more than the attacking FAC.
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
That's the trade off, not the cost of the attacker, the cost of the damage caused if you don't stop it. Ideally you would have a Typhoon or similar and a 100% kill rate but during a saturation attack or a pop up threat you would use what you have, even if that thing was an ESSM or Harpoon
 

Bonza

Super Moderator
Staff member
Both good points Tod and Volk, I hadn't thought about it that way. The cost of a few ESSMs compared to the potential cost of a fast attack craft getting close enough to launch an anti-ship missile really does come down in favour of the defensive missile launch.
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
That said, once the threat has been identified more effective and affordable counters are usually developed quite quickly. Think Griffin, Phalanx 1B etc. Typhoon and other options. The Romeo and Sierra MH-60 helos being armed with Hellfire as opposed to Penguin. APKWS, DAGR, etc. being developed and deployed on Firescout etc.
 

kiwipatriot

New Member
ANZACs, especially the RNZN two, were never a top of the range ship and were overly expensive for what we got. IMHO we would've been better buying the F100 frigates straight from Spain, or the RN Type 23. The ANZACs are top heavy and the Kiwi ones under armed. Now I am specifically talking about the RNZN ships. They do not have ASuW missiles such as Harpoon. They depend on the helo for ASW and ASuW prosecution so if the helo goes u/s or gets shot down then they are stuffed. Both the Maverick and the Penguin require the helo to go within the enemies SAM umbrella in order to launch the missile. Both the Maverick and Penguin are short ranged ASuW missiles.

Numbers have a quality of their own and when they are low, as in NZs case, then they are crucial, very crucial. For the RNZN combat force to work properly three frigates are needed: one fully operational, one in training and / or light maintenance and one refit / full maintenance. The rule of threes. With two frigates we don't have that. Sea Ceptor is a short range missile and doesn't have the range of ESSM. However it is better than the Sea Sparrow it is replacing in the RNZN and is able to attack fast surface craft which ESSM cannot do at the moment. The British Navy is known as the Royal Navy (RN) and nothing else.

Finally, Waylander is a very highly respected defence professional in this forum and has forgotten more about defence than many of us will ever know. He is treated with the respect he deserves and is entitled too. His comments in the post you quoted are very valid and correct.
No offence intended,i just meant given the budget constraints of govt, and the trend for having similar systems to our closest allies ie austrailia, it was the best we could do under the curcumstances. It could of been far worse if the green party or labour had there way, and they are being upgraded too, waylander seemed to make out the frigates were a obsolete ship, when they have proven their worth already in the gulf of aden and other exersizes. And I would love to see a third frigate too, once again, budget restraints.
 

kiwipatriot

New Member


Note Waylanders blue tag - that denotes someone who is a military and/or mil industry professional. People with a blue DefProf tag are also credentialed and checked before getting that tag

He happens to be a highly respected and regarded member of this forum due to the insight and knowledge that he brings through actual experience.

So before you wander off and start lecturing others about doing research it would pay to understand that DefProfs have recognised experience and expertise that most others would just dream about getting.

I suggest that you check your behaviour and attitude a tad because you'll have a short life on here if you repeat that kind of behaviour
No offence intended, though given our budget restraints it was the best we could do,the green party wanted patrol vessels remember? and at least we went for similar systems to the aussies for interoperability, woudn't it be counter productive if Austrailia , Nz, and America all used totally different systems? so much hassle then for a joint taskforce idea. If Austrailla had bought into a better Warship, and it proved an affordable counter offer to what we have things may have turned out differently. Given the recent crises Nz, and my city has gone through with the quakes, I doubt if we will be seeing any major defence purchases for years to come without major justification for it, and a trade off in capability.
 

gf0012-aust

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
No offence intended, though given our budget restraints it was the best we could do,the green party wanted patrol vessels remember? and at least we went for similar systems to the aussies for interoperability, woudn't it be counter productive if Austrailia , Nz, and America all used totally different systems? so much hassle then for a joint taskforce idea. If Austrailla had bought into a better Warship, and it proved an affordable counter offer to what we have things may have turned out differently. Given the recent crises Nz, and my city has gone through with the quakes, I doubt if we will be seeing any major defence purchases for years to come without major justification for it, and a trade off in capability.

No harm, no foul. Sometimes tone and intent is hard to pick up on the internet.

Logically and wherever possible everyone in the "5 eyes" community goes for commonality at various sharing levels. The reality for Australia is that our principle long term partner since the end of WW2 has been the US, so we have a compelling need and desire to ensure that we can interoperate as much as poss with the US

UK and Canada have similar philosophies and needs due to NATO as well as "5 Eyes"

NZ's choice and future force planning takes in similar considerations and constraints although her priorities are also based around interop with Aust. (and ditto for Oz as NZ is our immediate regional partner)

everyone is constrained by budget limitations

its easy though to be seduced by the philosophy that a common platform will drive down costs as each of us has integration requirements which buggers up the good intent
 
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MrConservative

Super Moderator
Staff member
No offence intended, though given our budget restraints it was the best we could do,the green party wanted patrol vessels remember? and at least we went for similar systems to the aussies for interoperability, woudn't it be counter productive if Austrailia , Nz, and America all used totally different systems? so much hassle then for a joint taskforce idea. If Austrailla had bought into a better Warship, and it proved an affordable counter offer to what we have things may have turned out differently. Given the recent crises Nz, and my city has gone through with the quakes, I doubt if we will be seeing any major defence purchases for years to come without major justification for it, and a trade off in capability.
I don't think it is fair to say that if only Australia had bought into another ship. They had their own fiscal restraints in those days as welI. It would have been likely that without any build input (which we did quite well out of by the way with respect to that project) we would have actually not replaced the Leanders - the Anzac project in many ways rested on local industrial benefits - it was the only attraction for many politicos. The "OPV is all we need" mantra was well established within the political left within NZ during that time as well as the harder edge of the political right who viewed a post cold war military as an economic burden more than a cornerstone of economic sovereignty.
 

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
I don't think it is fair to say that if only Australia had bought into another ship. They had their own fiscal restraints in those days as welI. It would have been likely that without any build input (which we did quite well out of by the way with respect to that project) we would have actually not replaced the Leanders - the Anzac project in many ways rested on local industrial benefits - it was the only attraction for many politicos. The "OPV is all we need" mantra was well established within the political left within NZ during that time as well as the harder edge of the political right who viewed a post cold war military as an economic burden more than a cornerstone of economic sovereignty.
The myth of the peace dividend.
 

ngatimozart

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
No offence intended, though given our budget restraints it was the best we could do,the green party wanted patrol vessels remember? and at least we went for similar systems to the aussies for interoperability, woudn't it be counter productive if Austrailia , Nz, and America all used totally different systems? so much hassle then for a joint taskforce idea. If Austrailla had bought into a better Warship, and it proved an affordable counter offer to what we have things may have turned out differently. Given the recent crises Nz, and my city has gone through with the quakes, I doubt if we will be seeing any major defence purchases for years to come without major justification for it, and a trade off in capability.
You don't need to go into what our city went through. But just to clear that; the rebuild will have a massive positive impact upon the national GDP for the next 20 years so that means a higher GDP and theoretically more money available for defence. The ANZACS were an Australian NZ build. The reason NZ welched on its agreement to purchase four was strictly political and the stinginess of the Jim Bolger National Govt & subsequent Shipley Govt, and Winston Peters. I was in the RNZNVR when the first set of drawings were made available to serving RNZN personnel and one thing we noted was a lot of Australia only items on the drawings. We were not impressed to say the least.

So don't go pinging our Aussie mates for what is purely a Kiwi balls up. You've had one moderator warning so I'd pull you horns and head in a bit. Read back through the thread and the NZDF one as well as the RAN one so that you might gain an understanding of things, before opening your mouth again.
 

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
I raised the prospect of an extended Australian Frigate Project (FFG 07) build instead of the separate patrol frigate project that resulted in the ANZACs on the RNZN thread. This imo would have been to the benefit of both nations as it had the potential to provide a more capable proven design for similar cost as well as being available earlier. The design could have been improved, as Taiwan had planned with their indigenous version, but I dont know the affect that would have had on cost an schedule. I.e 5" gun and Mk41 VLS but at the end of the day the baseline FFG was already a cut above the ANZAC.

A few interesting comments on the politics involved, stuff I hadn't thought of. I am familiar with left leaning elements being anti defence/military but I must admit, on reflection, economic rationalists can be as bad or worse. We saw this in the UK recently and previously (disasterously) under Thatcher, not to mention what hapened in Australia in 83 with the ending of the carrier replacement and some of the brain numbingly stupid decisions made in the 50s and 60s in the name of economics. 96 was no walk in the park either with many of Australia's current issues traced back to this point.
 

Waylander

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
First of all I want to say that it was in no way my intention to bad mouth about NZ armed forces or the country in general.

I just wanted to state that in it's current form the NZ forces have some goals which they are able to achieve and some missions for which they just not very well suited. They can secure and enforce the souvereignity of NZs territorial waters, land mass and EEZ against limited violations. They can also perform limited oversea operations within a coalition and add some good stuff to a multinational force.

Against anyone willing and able to land a modern medium or heavy brigade or more including air support the NZ defence forces would be hard pressed to defend their Islands.

NZs best defence is it's remoteness, it's relationship with other western countries and the fact that anybody trying to invade it would need to neutralize Oz first.

I doubt the professionals from NZ have any illusions about this. Where it gets problematic is when NZs ability to continue the missions I highlighted above gets eroded.
 

40 deg south

Well-Known Member
Jono is doing a good solid job. I would like him to stay on in Defence as he has been a quick study. One advantage he has had that no other DefMin has had in recent years is that he is Bill English's Associate Minister in Finance. However, with the retirement of Tony Ryall in Health, Jono with his Medical background and prior Associate Health Minister role he is a front runner for that huge portfolio and indeed front bench, in which he is destined.
Agree that Coleman has been good, and his close working relationship with the Finance Minister crucial. Hence my earlier post wondering what further acquisitions he would manage to push through the system before the election.

I've well outside the Wellington gossip belt myself, but a friend who moves in those circles was tipping Coleman as a potential Foreign Minister if the Nats ever manage to force McCully into retirement. Which would presumably mean giving McCully a diplomatic appointment in London or Washington.

With Ryall unexpectedly retiring from Health, I agree the Nats need may be greater in that direction.

As for a replacement (if National gets to lead a government again), look for someone young and on the way up. Bridges, Sam Lotu-Liga, Jamie-Lee Ross are all possibilities.

Re a comment from Mr C elsewhere, I doubt even the Greens would be blind enough to make Catherine Delahunty a Minister of Anything. Prolonged exposure to her in the caucus room must surely have taught them what any random citizen could discover after half an hour's conversation - she is stark raving bonkers.
 

40 deg south

Well-Known Member
First of all I want to say that it was in no way my intention to bad mouth about NZ armed forces or the country in general.

I just wanted to state that in it's current form the NZ forces have some goals which they are able to achieve and some missions for which they just not very well suited. They can secure and enforce the souvereignity of NZs territorial waters, land mass and EEZ against limited violations. They can also perform limited oversea operations within a coalition and add some good stuff to a multinational force.

Against anyone willing and able to land a modern medium or heavy brigade or more including air support the NZ defence forces would be hard pressed to defend their Islands.

NZs best defence is it's remoteness, it's relationship with other western countries and the fact that anybody trying to invade it would need to neutralize Oz first.

I doubt the professionals from NZ have any illusions about this. Where it gets problematic is when NZs ability to continue the missions I highlighted above gets eroded.
+1

I'm sure most Kiwi defence professionals and informed observers would agree with you, Waylander. The erosion of existing (modest) capabilities is the biggest threat.

Always glad to see comments from an external observer who is not too caught up in the detail to see the big picture.
 

MrConservative

Super Moderator
Staff member
Agree that Coleman has been good, and his close working relationship with the Finance Minister crucial. Hence my earlier post wondering what further acquisitions he would manage to push through the system before the election.

I've well outside the Wellington gossip belt myself, but a friend who moves in those circles was tipping Coleman as a potential Foreign Minister if the Nats ever manage to force McCully into retirement. Which would presumably mean giving McCully a diplomatic appointment in London or Washington.

With Ryall unexpectedly retiring from Health, I agree the Nats need may be greater in that direction.

As for a replacement (if National gets to lead a government again), look for someone young and on the way up. Bridges, Sam Lotu-Liga, Jamie-Lee Ross are all possibilities.

Re a comment from Mr C elsewhere, I doubt even the Greens would be blind enough to make Catherine Delahunty a Minister of Anything. Prolonged exposure to her in the caucus room must surely have taught them what any random citizen could discover after half an hour's conversation - she is stark raving bonkers.
Delahunty was me being facetious 40o South... she is a looney.

Jono for FM is something also that people have mentioned. Boris (Todd McClay) has the Diplomat background and is solid, though his posh diction may put off some - that can work in the FM role however. Though they may hold him for trade when Grosser moves on. I do think that in due course McCully will head to either London or Washington during the next term. There is the ECB factor, that may pan out with respect to the Conservative Party and McCully going on the list. He stays in the FM role for a year or so before retiring to Londom or Washington. Jono shifting to FM then. Adams could also go into Health she is tough but likeable - has a bit of the Crusher about her and is sound. As a backbencher she built links with the Navy and is one of the few woman in parliament who could tell you the difference between a Frigate and an OPV, a C130 and a P-3. Sam is also on the up and is capable guy. Bridges likewise but I would say he wants to be AG oneday, however Defence maybe a step towards that. He really is strong on the justice role. I have a lot of time for the whip Tim Mac personally, he is a very sincere and diligent guy though a future Education role could be his oneday as he is one of the few who would actually want to work with "them" - the Education civil service. Whitehouse is another you could throw into the Defence role in terms of capability to do it - though I have not really spoken to him thus have no knowledge if he actually knows much. However it didn't stop Jono, who will admit he knew nothing when he started and grew quickly into the role. I like Jamie Lee but he is still very young and needs time. Out of the 2011 intake Simpson and Goldsmith are very quiet publicly as backbenchers and still under the media radar, both classical politicians, however being already select committee chairs in the first term means the top table rates them for a move up next term if they don't do something stupid. Goldsmith to an Associate role and Simpson has party whip written all over him. Keep an eye on the BOP Selection to replace Ryall. A guy called Todd Muller may emerge from that. Very capable and if selected will move ahead quickly.

Cheers, MrC
 

40 deg south

Well-Known Member
Nice summary there, Mr C.

Much more comprehensive than I could manage these days.

Agree that Muller is tipped for big things - however, that has been the kiss of death for many a political career! This being New Zealand, I knew his old man slightly as an orchard contractor. Top bloke.
 
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