The government will invest $12 billion over the next four years for a "modern, combat-capable" New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).

The coalition has just released its highly-anticipated Defence Capability Plan that sets out a spending blueprint for the next 15 years.

• The coalition has released the 2025 Defence Capability Plan
• It outlines $12 billion of spending over the next four years, $9 billion of which is new money
• The plan will lift defence spending to more than 2 per cent of GDP in the next eight years

Of the $12 billion of spending, $9 billion is new money that will equate to a significant boost in annual funding for the force.

The plan will lift New Zealand's defence spending from just over one per cent of GDP to more than 2 percent in the next eight years.

Defence spending was last at 2 percent of GDP in the early 1990s.

The government has committed to reviewing the plan every two years but was clear the spending outlined today is the floor, not the ceiling, for future investment.

Of note in the blueprint is the plan to buy new missile systems "to respond to hostile vessels at a greater range" in the next four years.

There are also indications the defence force will expand its martime strike capabilities to deliver "long range strikes from multiple domains" from 2029 to 2039.

Major investments 2025-2028

• Enhanced strike capabilities
• Frigate sustainment programme
• Persistent surveillance (uncrewed autonomous vessels)
• Replacing the maritime helicopters
• Javelin anti-tank missile upgrade
• Network enabled army
• Special operations sustainment
• Vehicles for the NZDF
• Counter uncrewed ariel systems (UAS)
• Long-range remotely piloted aircraft
• Replacing the Boeing 757 fleet
• Space capabilities
• Enhancing cyber security capabilities
• Enterprise resource planning
• Improving intelligence functions
• Updating classified digital services
• Accommodation, messing and dining modernisation
• Defence estate regeneration
• Defence housing programme
• Future Devonport naval base design
• Ohakea infrastructure programme
• Defence, Science and Technology uplift
• Technology accelerator
• Information management
• Digital modernisation
• Logistics resilience
• Consolidated Logistics Project Infrastructure
• Implementing a workforce strategy

Work on the plan started in August 2023, and was initially expected to be delivered mid-2024, but was delayed - and delayed further after the sinking of the Manawanui.

Defence Minister Judith Collins had said that was to take into account geopolitical changes. Asked on Monday what the extra time had added, she said there was "quite a focus on uncrewed (drones) and high-tech systems, which New Zealand is able to actually able to supply to New Zealand and other countries.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was a "really important piece of strategic work for New Zealand" and the government wanted to get it right rather than done fast.

"We can afford this, we know this is a big step up and a big commitment but in our current fiscal track we can afford this."

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He said it would get New Zealand's defence spending to two percent of GDP, but that had not been the focus.

"That's one way people look at the spend, what we're more interested in is making sure we build out a defence force that ... is actually going to work for New Zealand going forward, and this does that," Luxon said.

Luxon said it was a "significant step-change in our defence spending and also our capability".

He said the plan had been backed by both of National's coalition partners.

We must be clear-eyed about recognising the risk of conflict in our wider region has risen and we have to do our part internationally and domestically ... there can be no prosperity without security."

New Zealand had a responsibility to resource the Defence Force to ensure the country's national interests could be defended, "whether in our near region, in defence of the realm in the South Pacific, in our alliance with Australia or in support of collective security efforts with our partners".

Collins said the world was inherently more dangerous and New Zealand's defence personnel were at the frontline of the country's security.

"They cannot do their jobs without the right equipment and conditions. This plan outlines what resources, equipment and support we need to modernise the NZDF to operate now and in the future."

Collins said the plan was "comprehensive and very necessary", and defence was not something that could be mothballed until it was needed.

"Distance, certainly, is no longer any protection for New Zealand, not when we have an intercontinental ballistic missile launched in the Pacific, not when ships with enormous strike power come into our backyard," she said - references to China's increasing displays of military might in the region.

She said the plan "gets our NZDF out of the intensive care unit, and not just growing but growing where we need it to grow".

The Defence Capability Plan comes as Australia, the United Kingdon and several European nations up their defence spend and the second Donald Trump administration signals to the rest of the world it needs to step up its contributions.

Last week, RNZ's first Reid Research poll revealed about half of voters think New Zealand should increase its defence spending.

Read the DCP 2025 here.