Garin Golding is now Chief of Navy and promoted to Rear Admiral. He may have stated what you quoted when he was MCC, other than that, another good read. If you look at the Orbat, National Governments rarely fund Defence capital, due to other priorities. It will be unusual if they stump up for a range of replacement capability. They will most likely use the excuse that Navy has insufficient people to crew the current fleet, so why would they purchase any new ships, even though they should be ‘replacements’ and it will be convenient for them to say Navy can use one of the OPV’s to conduct littoral / survey work, notwithstanding they were not designed to carry out the work that Manawanui did. It may be an opportunity for National to remove that capability completely just as the Helen Clark Govt removed the Air Strike Capability from the NZ Airforce many years ago. This is not only an opportunity for Navy and Defence in general, it will be seen more as a political opportunity to reduce capability, save money, and hope the lost capability is not required in the future.
Garin Golding is now Chief of Navy and promoted to Rear Admiral. He may have stated what you quoted when he was MCC, other than that, another good read. If you look at the Orbat, National Governments rarely fund Defence capital, due to other priorities. It will be unusual if they stump up for a range of replacement capability. They will most likely use the excuse that Navy has insufficient people to crew the current fleet, so why would they purchase any new ships, even though they should be ‘replacements’ and it will be convenient for them to say Navy can use one of the OPV’s to conduct littoral / survey work, notwithstanding they were not designed to carry out the work that Manawanui did. It may be an opportunity for National to remove that capability completely just as the Helen Clark Govt removed the Air Strike Capability from the NZ Airforce many years ago. This is not only an opportunity for Navy and Defence in general, it will be seen more as a political opportunity to reduce capability, save money, and hope the lost capability is not required in the future.
Hi Stephen, thanks for the update and insights.