Our “under pressure” Defence Force will need investment as global power competition changes the Pacific, Defence Minister Andrew Little says.

Little was appointed minister of defence by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins earlier this month, replacing Minister Peeni Henare.

His appointment comes at a time of acute difficulty for the Defence Force.

There has been historically high attrition as soldiers leave in droves after the pandemic. Maintaining and staffing its ageing assets has also been a struggle in recent months, with a fleet of six 55-year-old P-3K2 Orion aircraft retired earlier than planned, before the billion-dollar acquisition of four P-8 Poseidon planes could replace them.

“It's pretty clear that the attrition that they've suffered, certainly over the last sort of two or three years, is being felt,” Little said, in an interview.

"They do a lot with what they've got. But when you talk to them, they say that they are stretched.

“We've got to get past that and give our defence leaders and our defence frontline troops confidence, a sense of confidence, that whatever they're asked to do, they are able to have a meaningful response.”

Little said this difficulty challenged the Defence Force’s capability to meet the changing demands in the Pacific, and further afield.

"As the Pacific has become a region of much greater attention for the superpowers, and indeed for our friends and allies – and we're seeing countries like Japan sort of gear up a little more, Australia making bigger investments, even France doing the same for their interests down here, and the UK showing greater interest in the Pacific than they ever had before – I think there's an expectation that we will demonstrate some leadership as well in this respect.

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“That I think is important in terms of informing future decisions about what we invest in for military capability.”

The Government has deferred planned military acquisitions and spoken of delaying spending in recent years, while allocating $500 million in Budget 2022 to, as Henare said, “keep the lights on”. In March 2022, the Ministry of Defence halted acquisition of a Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel, expected to cost up to $600m and be built by 2027.

Henare, who talked of redrawing defence priorities throughout his two years in the role, in October launched a sweeping defence policy review that was due to be completed in mid-2024.

Little said he was working with officials to “accelerate” policy work, so he could make key decisions.

“I need to get clarity about a timeline for decisions much more quickly,” he said.

“We have to acknowledge that the situation is changing rapidly. It's materially different now to what it was two years ago, and so the idea that we might wait another year or two years or whatever it is, before we start making some of those commitments, I think, doesn't acknowledge just the rapid pace of change of what's going on around us.

"We're at an important juncture, I think, in terms of supporting our Defence Force, but also the long term decisions that we take and what future capability looks like for us, given the way we read the current circumstances.”

Little said an “obvious” issue to him was New Zealand’s small Navy having a lot of different types of vessels.

"Part of the approach for the future is to, I think, focus on what it is we need to be doing both in our region, in the Pacific region, or in the Indo-Pacific region and what we think we need to contribute more further abroad ... that might lead to a different range of maritime capability that we have at the moment.

“But let's see where these reviews get to. I don't want to get too far ahead of that.”

Versatility needed to be maintained, he said, for the Defence Force’s work in humanitarian and disaster response, transnational crime and illegal fishing, and the Southern Ocean.

“But we are in a region where there is greater competition and that competition is intensifying, and we need to be able to work with our partners to provide a level of support that we're not used to doing in this particular region. So that's that's what I would be looking for.”

Little said the Government remained committed to, and would legislate for, the creation of an inspector-general of defence that would investigate complaints and scrutinise the Defence Force. The National Party has said it would oppose this.