Soldiers rehearse for a military parade in the rain on Parliament's forecourt. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has admitted the most significant issue it is facing is high levels of attrition at a time when requests for its help are expected to increase.
In a briefing to new Minister of Defence Judith Collins it listed the key interests and major potential threats to Aotearoa, which include climate change and the impact of Russia's illegal occupation and war in Ukraine.
It said in a more complicated strategic environment, the NZDF is around 1300 uniformed personnel and 130 civilians short of what's needed.
In the 20 months to 28 February 2023, the NZDF lost 30 percent of its full-time uniformed and trained personnel.
It means that some parts of the fleet were being retired early and new assets could not be introduced because of a lack of personnel capacity.
An added complication is that replacement personnel are hard to recruit from the general public because they need such specialised training and skills.
The briefing also states the Army is "generally" able to support domestic emergency responses, and can offer some small scale humanitarian and disaster relief internationally. But it has a "very limited" capacity to support concurrent regional and domestic responses, beyond a basic response.
The Navy also has similar issues with its ability to produce or sustain cover for concurrent humanitarian or local events for long duration.
The Air Force has a number of capacity shortfalls affecting its ability to produce or sustain concurrent responses, for example low crew numbers presenting risks to sustained deployments.
This is specifically problematic with the concurrent activities required to sustain C-130H Hercules operations while also supporting the transition to the new C-130J-30. It said this "will require careful management given current personnel limitations".
The C-130H fleet were being progressively retired, as were the two compromised boeing 74s and the entire Navy fleet bar the tanker, expected to reach the end of their lives by 2032 to 2036.
Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft. Photo: Flickr/ WRAIGHT68
The NZDF has made multiple attempts to stem the flow of personnel leaving, but believed it would take decades to fix the problem. The staff they were able to keep were often filling multiple roles.
It said some of the main reasons personnel were leaving was due to the cost of living their families were facing, the remuneration, and the state of the infrastructure, barracks and houses they lived in.
New equipment and deployment opportunities were key motivators to retain staff, but there were concerns with burnout as the number of experienced and qualified people were called on constantly.
In terms of infrastructure, it described the assets with "minimal or no remaining useful life" which were also unfit for purpose.
"Maintaining safe living and working conditions is a constant challenge. The estates' dilapidated condition is evident in the living and training environments, and utilities like power, water and sanitation."
The NZDF said it was expecting it would need to deploy more often to a greater variety of situations over the next 15 years - creating a bigger need for flexibility to both protect against and utilise new technologies.
The forces was also looking to expand capabilities with an Information Warfare Academy: a programme aimed at giving the NZDF the capability to generate contemporary information warfare skills, such as intelligence, cyber operations and electronic warfare.
The briefing noted that work was underway to develop a new Defence Capability Plan which will be presented to the government in February, outlining what resources, people and capabilities are required through to 2040.