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 Published in the “Dominion Post” Wellington NZ 8 September. 

Critics of the equipping and manning of the New Zealand defence forces should take a long hard look at the problems that face the Australian Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson.

First, there are the attempts to bring into service 11 Super Sea Sprite helicopters for the RAN. They have not met the operational standards required and are all now grounded indefinitely. A report on their future is still to be released. Quite possibly the whole fleet will be scrapped and a billion dollars will go down the defence gurgler.

This will leave the RAN without operational helicopters for their ANZAC frigates. The RNZN has five fully operational Super Sea Sprites that were ordered the same time as the Aussies and have been in service for several years. But the NZ choppers were brand new standard issue while the Australians have hung their non-operating bells and whistles on 40-year-old hulls.

Grave problems with the care and maintenance of supplies and equipment have led the Minister to call for an across-the-board survey of the whole of the ADF, uniformed and civilian, with particular reference to the ordering and supply areas.

The Australian Army will take delivery in 2007 of 59 Abrams tanks ordered from the United States. The first half dozen are at this moment crossing the Pacific. They’re not new, of course, but splendidly refurbished. With massive transporters and the recent extension of the rail line from Alice Springs to Darwin they can head north for transshipment to who knows where. They are quite unsuitable for use in our Pacific region.

The Navy is ordering air warfare destroyers with the latest Aegis missile defence system and a couple of really large (25,000 tons) amphibious carriers capable of carrying swarms of choppers, the Abrams tanks and hundreds of men. Foreign shipyards are competing to build these ships.

The RAAF lost a Sea King helicopter on a mercy mission in Indonesia last year. These aged choppers have ended their useful lives and the ADF will purchase 46 MRH helicopters to replace them and the Army Black Hawk fleet.

A fleet of six Wedgetail early–warning AWACS aircraft is under construction by Boeing. Just $3.5 billion. The first was due for delivery by the end of this year but the Defence Department has confirmed a delay until August 2008, almost two years behind schedule. “Software integration problems” are given as reasons.

Clearly Sea Sprites and Wedgetails have both suffered from a passion for Australianization of standard products.

In a recent address at the Lowy Institute in Sydney the chief of the ADF’s new Capability Development Group, Lt Gen David Hurley, hinted at the line he will take to contain this enthusiasm. “In the future ADF” he said “mistakes will be the exception rather than the rule!” He plans to “avoid over-Australianization and take more off-the-shelf products.”

 Australia has already committed hundreds of millions of dollars as advance payments for 100 of the new generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) being developed by the United States for the USAF, the RAF and the RAAF. These will replace the F-111 fighters now 40 years old.

The JSF delivery dates are still uncertain and it is not yet known if American stealth technology will be shared. If not, then the Aussies will be unable to service their own aircraft. Delivery delays may cause an ugly gap after the departure of the last F-111.

The RAAF has on order three massive C-17 transport aircraft. These will be able to carry the Abrams tanks. But where will they be going?

Much of this new equipment, when finally delivered in working order, is unsuitable for border protection and the maintenance of law and order in the immediate region. This strike force is hardened to give support in battles at the ends of earth. The deputy sheriff will be ready to put Australian service people at the disposal of the American empire.

Australia will soon have 500 troops on the ground in southern Iraq and is returning to Afghanistan after a long absence. Front line troops have returned to the Solomon Islands and East Timor. The Australian “arc of instability” from Timor to Melanesia has shown that their front yard contains a rash of failing states. The troops and police are there now for a long haul.

Serious manpower shortages in the ADF are at last being faced by the government. Unemployment rates are at a record low and this will make it difficult to man the new ships, fly the new planes and fill the Army boots Nevertheless Prime Minister Howard has just called for 2,600 more troops, two new battalions, at a cost of $A10 billion.

These soldiers and an additional 400 new officers for the Australian Federal Police are all aimed at deployment for regional security responsibilities, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, as well as coalition operations further afield.

It’s going to be a tough call for the Minister of Defence to provide the men and guns for the deputy sheriff.