NZ Defence White Paper delayed?

[buglerbilly]

New Zealand Delays Defense White Paper

By NICK LEE-FRAMPTON

Published: 9 Mar 2010 15:25

WELLINGTON - New Zealand's first defense white paper in more than a decade, due for release March 30, has been postponed for six months, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp announced March 7.

Interviewed on Television New Zealand's "Q&A" program, Mapp said that people have "got to have confidence that [defense expenditure] is affordable over the entire 25 years" covered by the white paper. "So we're doing a value-for-money exercise, a deep look into the defense system to see if we can get resources essentially from the back office to the front."

Mapp denied it was a matter of cost cutting and described it as "shifting" resources from the budget to operational areas.

"We're talking about 50 or so million [New Zealand] dollars per year," he said. "There's two major areas, we have three services, they each have their own HR [human resource] systems [and] completely separate training systems. We think there's opportunities to join some of that up."

"We also think there's an opportunity for public-private partnerships on the bases themselves, particularly buildings and infrastructure," he said.

Mapp's remarks echo those of the New Zealand Defence Force Annual Report, published last September, in which the chief of the Defence Force, Lt. Gen. Jerry Mateparae, forecast: "My expectation is that in 2010, [we] will start delivering a new way of conducting logistics support and a new way of training, managing and leading our people through human resource management."

Asked if bases would be closed - the New Zealand Defence Force has 11 - Mapp said that was not "the primary focus." ■

[buglerbilly]

NZ Confident White Paper Will Provide Adequate Capabilities

By Nick Lee-Frampton

Published: 1 Apr 2010 10:50

Wellington - New Zealand's delayed defense white paper "will cover a capability mix that … will allow us to meet our security obligations and deliver value for money," Defence Minister Wayne Mapp told delegates at the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific 2nd Study Group on Naval Enhancement in the Asia-Pacific.

Mapp said that some defense observers have pointed with concern to modernization plans, in particular naval modernization efforts, by regional defense forces, but that he is optimistic that change in the Asia-Pacific region can be "managed peacefully."

"It is inevitable that naval capability will grow along with economic capability," Mapp said March 26.

New Zealand's next defense white paper (DWP) had been expected at the end of March but has been delayed six months while officials find about 50 million New Zealand dollars ($35.5 million) a year for the next few years.

As Mapp explained March 7 when he announced the DWP would not appear as scheduled: "There are some challenges, largely due to the recession and things of that nature, that we have to deal with over the next five years, so we're doing a value-for-money exercise, a deep look into the defense system to see if we can get resources essentially from the back office to the front. We've got to sort that out because when the report's published, people have got to have confidence that it's affordable actually over the entire 25 years.

"It's not a cost-cutting exercise; what's occurring over the next three years or so, we're receiving nearly 2 billion dollars of new equipment - helicopters, upgraded aircraft, of course the Project Protector fleet. That pushes up operational costs in particular, and right at a time when the economy is, you know, recovering. So we do have to be able to shift a bit of resources out from the back to the front," he said.

There is no possibility that New Zealand will increase its traditional funding of 1 percent of GDP spent for defense. Indeed, Roderick Deane, erstwhile head of (NZ) Telecom and the State Services Commission, and known nationally for imposing ruthless economic efficiency, has recently been appointed to lead a so-called "value-for-money review." It may be that defense spending will go down, if not simply sideways as Mapp said is required.

Defense News understands that the defense force was not forewarned of Deane's appointment.

Mapp is blunt about what has to be done: "New Zealand faces tight fiscal realities, and so we must be more deliberate on where our defense dollars are spent. The DWP will therefore outline a realistic and affordable defense plan."

Ron Smith, co-director of International Relations and Security Studies at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, told Defense News he expects the white paper will be "driven by financial considerations, by what we want to spend rather than by an assessment of contingencies and what we might need."

Smith cautioned that "a policy that doesn't anticipate capability requirements in a broad way is a policy that is going to fail you."

Lance Beath of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington expressed dismay at the financial focus that has delayed publication of the white paper.

"It seems to me a credible, if disappointing, line for those of us where there was hope held out that this defense review might attempt to tackle additional resources."

Beath said that "over the last 20 years or so there has been a marked divergence" between Australian and New Zealand white papers, the former arguing they have to be prepared to fight a conventional war.

"We tend to say the prospects for … war appear to be … vanishingly small, therefore it is a waste of time and resources to prepare for the improbable, so instead lets focus on peace-related operations."

Phil Goff, defense minister with the previous (Labour) government and now Labor Party leader, said he was puzzled at the explanation for delaying the DWP.

"Given the white paper is at a strategic level, I can't see any good reason why that should have to rely on a short-term focus on a cost-cutting exercise. It doesn't really make sense to me that that is the reason for the deferral.

"I don't think the explanation is adequate and the consequences of the deferral [include] an absence of policy and an absence in any area of moving forward with defense. I just find it extraordinary that [the government] will have had no defense policy of their own for [so long]; they are simply maintaining the status quo."

[buglerbilly]

New Zealand Report Shows Progress, Delays

By NICK LEE-FRAMPTON

Published: 4 Nov 2011 11:58

WELLINGTON - The 2011 Annual Report of the New Zealand Defence Force shows the challenge of dealing with change and improvements when you begin with such a small foundation of aircraft, ships and personnel.

For example, although four new A109 helicopters arrived to replace the venerable Bell 47 Sioux in the training role, the diversion of personnel, especially technicians, to the A109s and to prepare for the imminent arrival of NH90 helicopters has affected maintenance and availability of front-line UH-1H Iroquois.

Similar stress has been placed on the six P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircrafts and five C-130H Hercules transport aircraft, as they are undergoing upgrades and life extensions, respectively.

Upgrade delays and other factors meant the Orions flew fewer than 1,800 of a planned 2,250 hours, and changes in the life extension program, as well as emergency deployments in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, have the Hercules fleet flying 85 percent of its targeted hours.

Just as the entry of new helicopters into service will increase availability of rotary-wing platforms, completion of the Orion and Hercules projects will dramatically improve readiness and capabilities.

The situation is less clear with the five SH-3G Seasprite naval helicopters. The annual report reveals the Kaman helicopters managed two-thirds of their target flying hours. With maintenance problems reducing aircraft availability, crew training also was affected.

In the next few years, the government will consider either upgrading or replacing the Seasprites. However, officials said weeks ago that all five Seasprites were operationally available, which suggests changes to the servicing procedures of the aircraft are proving successful.

There is encouraging news, too, from the four Inshore Patrol Vessels (IPVs) and the two Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), as their operational envelopes are gradually expanded since they entered service in the past few years.

The annual report stated that the IPVs collectively achieved 93 percent of the planned mission availability days, and the OPVs 97 percent. Unplanned maintenance requirements meant the OPVs achieved a combined 230 sea days from a planned range of 273 to 294.