Poorly researched article. First these vessels were not British built but were built here in New Zealand. The old Lake Class IPC's from back in the 1980's were built in England yes. These Lake Class IPV's built in the early 2000's are larger and have better sea keep qualities
Secondly the not meeting the long range patrolling requirements is a half truth. They can't patrol the Southern Ocean due to the conditions of the Southern Ocean. They have sailed to Fiji, and Samoa on many occasions to help the islands with their fishery patrols. Basically range was not the issue.
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The NZDF decommissioned them due to a variety of reasons. The RNZN initially only ever needed and wanted 2 (not 4 of them) in the first place. They can not do deep patrols into the Southern Ocean which they were asked to do at first. The OPV's were built for this and they struggle at times.
Another Half truth is that at the time they were decommissions the RNZN had a manning shortage which is a half truth. The main reason they were decommissioned is the RNZN are getting a purpose built SOPV or Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel. So it was a mixture of reasons why the RNZN decommissioned them.
