The article below in NZ's Dominion Post newspaper (one of the biggest in NZ) beautifully sums up NZ's contribution to Asia-Pacific defence capability. It almosts makes me cry - especially when I see what those (lucky) damn Aussies are getting!
I guess articles like tis can only serve to help foster change. NZer's seem to be coming far more aware of what the NZDF is all about & what they are required for (result of current & recent missions) - which can only be good. There's still a long way to go & some deep philosophical issues to be overcome, but things do seem to be slowly starting to change.
Read on....I 've pasted the article in here c'os the website posting this don't keep a story archive, they remove stories within a matter of days.
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Dominion Post - 24 October 2006
By HANK SCHOUTEN
The Defence Force annual report makes bleak reading – the armed forces appear to be almost as run down and decrepit as the railways.
As with the railways, defence has suffered from decades of neglect and under-investment, and has faced dramatic cuts such as the loss of its air combat capability.
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Findout how to get quake safeBut the Government is committed to spending more than $7.6 billion to rebuild the military.
The army has new fleets of light armoured vehicles and light operational vehicles, sophisticated radios and new missiles – providing such a leap in capability that it is still to come to grips with how it will operate in future.
The navy will take delivery of six new patrol craft and a multi-role ship next year, but its two Anzac frigates will shortly need midlife upgrades.
Work is also under way on a big makeover for the air force, which awaits delivery of new helicopters and upgrades of its Orion patrol aircraft, Hercules transports and modified Boeing 757s.
The three services are striving to boost their manpower and big investments in defence bases and infrastructure are still needed.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHowever, it is an agonisingly slow process, not helped by the need to maintain overseas deployments.
There are 413 personnel serving on 13 operations overseas, the biggest being in East Timor, Afghanistan and the Solomon Islands.
The annual report indicates the army, navy and air force are all struggling to maintain operational capabilities in the face of staff shortages and aging equipment.
Even the army with its new equipment appears barely able to commit itself to a war zone. Most army units are undermanned – below 80 per cent of establishment – and are short of equipment.
"Deficiencies in command and control, firepower, and compatible protection for combat service support elements would impair effectiveness in conventional military operations and more demanding peace support operations," the report says.
The army is short of protective equipment, tents, communications specialists, radios and night vision and field engineering equipment.
The army's bomb disposal unit is also short of skilled personnel and equipment and there is also doubt about its ability to maintain medical services on operations.
The Defence Ministry has signalled that the army will have to begin replacing its truck fleet, beginning in 2011, at a cost of about $550 million.
The navy also faces significant problems.
It is so short of key staff, particularly helicopter air crew, bridge watchkeepers, warfare officers and technicians, that it is difficult to man its two frigates.
Critical shortages of instructors have affected the navy's ability to train pilots for the Seasprite helicopters and operations are limited, particularly for night flying.
The navy has enough divers for only one of its two operational diving teams and new equipment is needed to provide a more credible mine detection and removal capability.
The air force is having problems with its old, though soon to be upgraded, Orion and Hercules aircraft.
Age-related systems faults forced many Hercules flights to be delayed or cancelled. Shortages of spares affected their radar, self-protection system, hydraulics, engines, propellers and electrical, fuel, navigation and fire warning systems.
The Orion patrol aircraft are also showing their age, with computers that pick up the noise made by submarines and weapons fitted described as having "only marginal operational viability".
There are not enough air crew to sustain deployments and the Iroquois helicopter squadron is struggling.
The air force has suffered a "significant" loss of personnel and the "air crew state has compromised... the ability to meet designated outputs".
The helicopters themselves are not up to scratch. "The performance of the aircraft in bad weather, at night and in hot and high conditions is unsatisfactory."
Though the state of the air force is being addressed, it will take about five years before it gets back into some sort of shape.
Eight large French-built NH90s are on order at a cost of $771 million and tenders have just been called for six smaller training/utility helicopters budgeted to cost $110 million. However, they won't be in service before 2010.
The five Hercules transport aircraft are getting a life-extending rebuild and modernisation costing $234 million.
The first will be finished next year but the project won't be completed till 2010. Another $20 million-project to upgrade the Hercules' anti-missile self protection systems – needed to fly into hostile territory – is still to be approved.
The Orions are getting a $373 million upgrade to replace obsolete surveillance, communication and navigation systems. Work on the first Orion will finish in 2008, with the last not completed till 2010.
As with the Hercules, they need a self-protection capability to give them defence against shoulder-launched missiles.
The $40 million project is still to be approved, along with another proposal to fit the Orions with anti-ship missiles, a belated substitute for the loss of capability when the air combat force was scrapped five years ago.
The air force has also begun a massive project to consolidate virtually all its operations at Ohakea.
The runway was recently rebuilt but another $25 million is to be spent on rebuilding the bumpy and crumbling taxiways.
Costings are still to be done on new hangars and facilities needed for the extra 1300 staff to be based at Ohakea.
Though the navy is focused on preparing for the delivery of its seven new ships next year, it is also making some other big calls on the defence budget.
Last week Defence Minister Phil Goff announced $35 million would be spent to replace the power system and build a new fuel storage installation at Auckland's Devonport Naval Base.
He also approved another $60 million to $85 million on projects to update the Anzac frigates.
This includes a refit of their engines and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, as well as an upgrade of their Phalanx close-in weapon system – an automatic gun designed to be a last line of defence against attack missiles and high-speed attack craft.
But another $400 million to $500 million is still to be allocated for a much larger upgrade of the frigates' self-defence systems, including the installation of new Seasparrow anti-air missiles.
Though the frigates have been in service only since the early 1990s, most of their self-defence equipment was designed more than 20 years ago.
This project is set to start in 2010.
Torpedoes for the frigates, Seasprite helicopters and the Orion aircraft will also have to be replaced shortly.
The Defence Ministry says the present torpedoes need to be replaced by 2009 but the cost of doing that has not yet been published.
All three services have also begun rebuilding manpower under the Defence Sustainability Initiative announced last year. The aim is to have another 1500-2000 personnel within 10 years – a big increase on the 13,000 now in defence.
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