Is that 2 FAR-3320W one on the yardarm and and one opposite... ... makes sense else you get blind spot like you have on the leanders 1006 nav radar... just wondering why not put the opposite on the opposite yardarm...
Well the frigates are still the best informed targets ... as they don't really have anything to deal with that information ... lol
I think it is one FAR-3320W nav radar on the front yardarm(?) of the foremast. There is a Sharp Eye 2D nav radar (X-band I think) atop the mainmast (if you can call it that) that serves as the main nav radar. The FAR-3320W looks like it's just covering the blindspot the Sharp Eye radar has due to the new foremast.
The RNZN, as well as the NZDF as a whole, IMHO is on the brink of being militarily impotent at present. They are pretty well logistically impotent as well. HMNZS Aotearoa has apparently been sitting idle nearly six months due to the inability of overseas suppliers to install her equipment during the COVID lockdown (
link). NZ has nowhere to even dry-dock her in-country. Very little ship repair, no shipbuilding capability, no weapons production, almost no merchant marine and really long, easily-interdicted supply lines. We're screwed if a real war breaks out! The NZDF is a fair-weather force only.
I suspect Sea Ceptor is a year or two from being ready to use as well. I doubt we will see a test-firing until RIMPAC 2022 at earliest.
Getting Harpoons would make more sense if we were also buying some air-launched versions for the P-8s. The Aussie Anzacs rarely carry 8 missiles I suspect (just the tubes I would think to save weight). The UK has pulled all the Harpoons off it's ships.
Until video shows up on Youtube of a SH-2G(I) firing a Penguin (like we had for the Maverick equipped SH-2G(NZ)), I remain skeptical that that capability even works as well after reading the Australian Audit Office report on the Seasprite (due to centre of gravity issues when you drop the weapon). We were supposed to have a test firing at RIMPAC 2016 - then all of a sudden it didn't happen. Nothing at subsequent RIMPACs either. We have seen a photo of the SH-2G(I) carrying 2x Penguins (minus the droptanks that they usually carry - so aircraft range must be seriously handicapped). Australia had I think 100 Penguins for sale, NZ bought some (but it has never been said publicly how many).
