Note From Nighthawk
I/We have been putting the defence budget under scrutiny for years now. It has over the last 30 years been stripped, shrunk and made toothless over that time. Even when the DCP2019 came out it was a start but not enough to make a recovery, and we backed out for the SOPV due to budget... We have no strategic plan that both the left and right can agree on to continuously fund... and we are running out of time (I would say run out of time).
This idea of having the bare minimum of a defence force does not work and has not worked as it takes to long to rebuild if ever needed by which time it is to late, and in this era of a ever changing geopolitical world we can not rely of our allies, as shown by shown by Trump administration and the flip flop of where they stand with their allies, friends and partners.
New Zealand only has one official ally and that is Australia, and we are being left behind. If we want to keep our way of life, we need to trade, and if we want to trade we need to keep the trade lines open and keep the rules based order of things... which in turn means we need to step up to protect those trade lines as well, not just let every one else do it... that is free loading.
Start by funding the Navy and then Air Force properly give them the teeth to fight back... the Navy have all the sensors to track and see what is coming but no teeth to truly take out any hostile. They only have defensive weapons no offensive weapons to actually strike back at range. The Penguin Missile and old short range missile launched from the aging Sea Sprite platform is not going to cut it. Why you ask, for those that are non military or mis-informed persons... if going up against any serious threat (ie; the Chineses vessels that circumnavigated our Ally Ally) the Sea Sprite helo would have been taken out by the anti defensive weapons before it got into range of the anti-ship missile to be launched.
That is the first up grade that needs to added to the frigates in the sort term, is a true long range Anti Ship Missile like the Naval Strike Missile. The Peguin's big brother. The second put the CIWS on HMNZS Aotearoa this idea of Fitted for but not with is foolish and dangerous and people at risk with no way to fully respond as you never know when or where you will be when you need that system or weapon.
