The Defence Force will buy new maritime surveillance aircraft, with submarine hunting capability, worth $2.3 billion.
Defence Minister Ron Mark announced the purchase of four planes on Monday afternoon. The planes will be delivered by 2023, and will replace the ageing P-3 Orions.
The purchase comes after Mark released a rebooted defence policy strategy on Friday, which emphasised the point the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) needed to be "combat ready".
The policy statement spoke frankly about the threats facing the international rules-based order, in New Zealand's area of responsibility, the wider Asia-Pacific region, and the world.
It also pointed the finger squarely at China, specifically naming potential threats.
Mark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have spoken extensively about the current threat to the rules-based order and New Zealand's need to do its part in maintaining peace and stability.
The P-8s would give New Zealand increased reconnaissance and weaponising capabilities, especially when it comes to hunting submarines. South Korea, Australia and India have also opted for the P-8A Poseidon.
The regional trend towards the plane comes as navies' concerns about submarine activity grows - a trend driven in large part by China's undersea technological advances.
"This Government is determined to have the tools to defend and advance New Zealand's interests."
"Great Power competition is back. Climate change is impacting our immediate neighbourhood. Across geography and domains, challenges once conceived as 'future trends' have become present realities," Peters said earlier this month.
In order to address the changing environment, the NZDF needed to be equipped to increase resource protection activities, complex disaster relief operations, peace and stability operations, and regular engagement with regional security partners, he said.
"This Government is determined to have the tools to defend and advance New Zealand's interests."
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On Monday, Mark said maintaining a maritime patrol capability was essential for New Zealand's national security, and for its ability to contribute to global security efforts.
In April 2017, the United States Government's State Department approved the sale of up to four of the planes, with the estimated cost being US$1.46 billion (NZ$2.2b). Mark said the extra cost was due to potential foreign exchange changes.
"We are a military force, and what we wanted for the Government is a response option," Short said.
New Defence Force chief Kevin Short, who is a former P-3 navigator, said the Government had decided it wanted the full spread of military capability options - "unless you buy that upfront, you never have that option".
"We are a military force, and what we wanted for the Government is a response option," Short said.
"There are plenty of aircraft out there that have a range of endurance and censors, but not many have the response. The response being, at some stage, just the mere threat of being able to carry weapons and being able to do something that is aggressive. That allows us to operate at the high ed of the spectrum, which our friends and allies want us to do."
Short also said Australia wanted New Zealand to purchase something with equal or greater capability as the P-3s, and they would have confidence in the P-8s.
The squadron currently operating the Orions would shift from Whenuapai to Ohakea air force base to operate the P-8s, as Whenuapai did not have the necessary capability.
Peters said the Government did not have plans to shut Whenuapai, but Short said the Whenuapai air base would like to be in operation for "decades to come", but eventually the NZDF would likely have to reconsider the base, as the runway couldn't be extended.
NATS WELCOME PLANES
National Party defence spokesman Mark Mitchell said the aircraft would advance New Zealand's capabilities.
The former government had begun the plans to purchase the planes, so it was good to see the decision made.
"The procurement of the P8s sends a positive signal to our allies and partners, showing that we will remain a capable Defence Force, and are well equipped to play our role on the international stage, alongside providing support to regional security arrangements," Mitchell said.
MOST IMPORTANT PURCHASE IN A GENERATION
Professor Robert Ayson, from Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Studies, said this was the most important defence capability choice made in a generation.
The process to purchase the aircraft was started under the previous government but stalled.
"New Zealand firmly in the American camp".
Purchasing the aircraft made a foreign policy statement, and a statement about New Zealand's commitment to being combat-ready.
The planes also signalled a willingness to continue to work with traditional partners like Australia and the US.
PLANES 'GIGANTICALLY EXPENSIVE'
But former Green MP, and defence procurement critic, Keith Locke said the new defence policy statement, and now the purchase of the P-8s put "New Zealand firmly in the American camp".
The "fear-monbgering" regarding the potential threat from China "comes straight out of the American playbook, and was used to justify a closer strategic alignment between the NZ Defence Force and the American military," he said.
"The alignment with America also makes our Defence Force hugely more expensive as we fit out our planes and ships with kit designed to fight a major war alongside America."
He also described the P-8s as "gigantically expensive", due to their war-fighting electronic equipment, including the capacity to detect submarines.
"New Zealand could have bought four high-tech surveillance planes, without the anti-submarine capacity, at a fraction of the cost, and they would have been much more useful," Locke said.
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"The more our surveillance planes are geared for war-fighting, the less they'll be available for monitoring fisheries in the South Pacific and Antarctica. Much of the time they'll be off conducting anti-submarine exercises with the other Five Eyes nations, or flying alongside American planes in Middle Eastern surveillance missions."
DEFENCE REVIEWS
The procurement announcement comes as maintenance costs of the old planes are spiking.
At more than 50-years-old, the New Zealand Air Force's Hercules and Orions are well past upgrades, and information released by NZDF under the Official Information Act showed the number of emergency alerts at Whenuapai Airbase for military aircraft have steadily increased over the past five years.
Meanwhile, official papers released to RNZ found NZDF spent about $360 million on maintenance and repairs of the ageing aircraft over the past 10 years, twice as much as in the previous decade.
In 2008, keeping the planes fit for purpose cost about $24m. Two years ago the cost spiked over $50m, and this year the bill is more than $43m.
After taking office last year, Mark commissioned a review of the defence procurement process. He was a strong critic of the former process, which had been updated in recent years.
The report found the current process was trustworthy, and there were no recommendations.
Following the procurement process review, and the strategic policy update, Mark was undertaking a review of the $20b defence capability plan, which was due back later this year.
https://www.scribd.com/document/383294569/New-defence-policy#fullscreen&from_embed
