The decommission Inshore Patrol Vessels HMNZS Rotoiti and Pukaki have been sold to Ireland naval services for around 26 million Euro. ($40 million NZD)
While I am glad the vessels have been sold and will be used, I personally would have preferred if New Zealand gifted these to vessels to the Islands say one to Samoa and the other to Fiji to help with the fishery patrols. We know these vessels are capable of working up there in the Pacific Islands as they have done this many times.
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There has been some mis-information why the were sold or decommissioned in the first place and all of them are half truths... from man shortages, to not able to handle the waters around NZ etc. The truth of the matter during project Protector the RNZN only ever wanted two of these vessels in the first place and have a 3rd possibly 4th OPV (Off Shore Patrol Vessel) instead. Now adding the purge of the NZDF back in 2015 there was service personal leaving in droves.
The decommissioning of these to vessels was seen as mainly as a crew shortage and that is only part of the story, the rest is they were being sold to help off-set the cost of getting the third OPV (which is what the RNZN wanted in the first place), and dedicated Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel. The other bit of mis-information or misunderstood comments are they can't handle New Zealand waters and patrol areas. Former defence minister Gerry Brownlee said in 2016 that "the 55-metre boats weren't "cutting it" in the rough waters surrounding the country." Again a half ... or even a quarter truth. They can handle the coastal waters around New Zealand just fine which is what they were designed for. They have sailed up to the Pacific Islands to help with their fishery patrols on many occasions and did just fine with no complaints about how they handled. They sail in our coastal waters and handle this well as well.
Where Gerry Brownlee was talking about was the Southern Ocean which is a totally different beast.
New Zealand has a huge area to patrol and even a larger area that we are in charge for SRR or Search and Rescue Region is nearing a 10th of the planet. You can se this in the image below.
New Zealand's huge Patrol and SAR area.
And putting this into perspective here is the same area over-layed Europe. As you can see it is an absolutely huge area to patrol with different seas and oceans with different sea state, and the Southern ocean with no other ocean comparable to it. It has a totally different wave length compared to the Northern Ocean and has bigger waves, more rogue waves, as there is no near by land mass to effect it or defuse it etc.
New Zealand's Patrol and SAR area over-layed Europe putting things into perspective.
What the IPV's can not handle is, doing any deep long Southern Ocean patrol which is a different kettle of fish all together. However they were never ever designed for this in the first place. But this is where the New Zealand Government started to concentrate and wanting more and more patrols in this area. People have to realise the vast area the Royal New Zealand Navy are asked to Patrol in reality it is a 10th of the planet from the Pacific Islands all the way down to the Ross Sea.
Adding the Royal New Zealand Navy only wanted two of these vessels to patrol New Zealand local coastal waters in the first place, we arrive at decommissioning 2 of them and now finally being sold to Ireland. If they kept to our coastal waters as they were intended they would be fine for this but as stated the Royal New Zealand Navy only ever want two vessels in the first place.
This even goes back to the original Lake class IPC's that were smaller and still happily sailed New Zealand coastal waters (we will say most of the time, I did the last fishery patrol on board HMNZS Pukaki before she was decommissioned in the early 1990's, fun times.) and decommissioned two of the four soon afterwards as again the Royal New Zealand Navy only needed two vessels to do what was originally asked of them.
“We’re very pleased that the ship maintenance will be providing a local economic boost prior to them leaving the country,” said Commodore Andrew Brown, Commander of Defence Logistics Command.
Built in Whangarei and commissioned into the Navy in 2009, during their service the two ships have been deployed on fishery monitoring, search and rescue, border security and maritime surveillance operations around New Zealand's 15,000km coastline.
However, a few years ago a project team within the RNZN identified that a better capability outcome would be achieved utilising the current offshore patrol vessels HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Wellington, supplemented with a Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel planned for the future.
“Our Navy has a greater need to project a presence further afield,” said Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral (RADM) David Proctor “and that's something the inshore patrol vessels simply weren't built to do.”
Formally decommissioned in October 2019, the two ships have been the subject of interest from a number of overseas navies but it was the Republic of Ireland that identified a key role they could perform.
RADM Proctor said the two remaining IPVs in the RNZN fleet, HMNZS Hawea and HMNZS Taupo, still have a valuable role to play in meeting the tasks required of the Navy.
“Local fishery monitoring and border protection patrolling will still be conducted but these ships also provide important Officer of the Watch training and command opportunities for our junior officers.”
Once the upgrade and modification work is completed on the vessels, they are expected to be commercially sea-lifted to the Republic of Ireland in late March or April 2023.
