The New Zealand Defence Force has quietly disposed of $29 million worth of air defence missiles which were never used or brought into service.

As a result, the New Zealand Army no longer has any dedicated air defence capabilities.

An Official Information Act (OIA) request made by the Otago Daily Times reveals Mistral short range air defence missiles were removed from New Zealand service more than a decade ago.

The Mistral is a French portable heat-seeking anti-aircraft missile with a 3kg warhead and a range of 6km, able to be operated by ground troops or mounted on vehicles.

The OIA response, attributed to Air Commodore AJ Woods, of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), said New Zealand initially bought 12 launchers and 24 missiles in 1997.

An additional purchase of an alert and cueing system, the Spanish Raven radar system, was announced in 2004 at a cost of about $10 million, as the system had not been able to distinguish between friendly and enemy aircraft.

In August 2012, the entire system was retired, having never fully been brought into service due to "ongoing operational, technological and financial issues," Air Com Woods said.

In total, the system cost about $29 million and was never deployed operationally or live-fired on a regular basis.

The system had been disposed of in its entirety.

No alternatives or replacements for the Mistral were being investigated, Air Com Woods said.

In March, the ODT reported the NZDF had no ability to shoot down high-altitude surveillance balloons operated by foreign powers.

Variants of the Mistral remain in service with several Western nations and in April 2022 about 100 were supplied to Ukraine by Norway.