NZ Defence Force in crisis – our ships can’t sail, planes can’t fly and soldiers have left in droves

The dire state of our military has been revealed in new documents that show huge numbers have left. Among those are people with critical skills, which means ships are tied up and aircraft can’t fly. Big money payments have been made to keep critical staff in place but one briefing called it “too little, too late”. David Fisher reports.

Our military has ships that can’t sail, aircraft that can’t be flown and not many soldiers to do the marching with parts of the NZ Defence Force needing a decade to rebuild.

In 21 months to April last year, NZDF lost almost a third of its uniformed service personnel, including people at critical pinch-points in which their absence can upend the ability of many others to do their job.

Examples include “ship stoppers” – marine mechanics – who have left in high numbers, meaning the Royal NZ Navy can’t put to sea, and the Army’s aligning plumbers as having “strategic significance” needed for the military to achieve its mission.

Documents released through the Official Information Act have revealed the dire state of readiness of our defence force with NZDF making “retention payments” to try to stop people from leaving critical roles.

It comes at a time when it is expected our military is going to be called on more often than in the past and into more dangerous situations.

The struggle to respond, repeatedly outlined in NZDF briefings to Ministers of Defence, is predicted to impact on New Zealand’s international standing and thwart our ability to achieve the diplomatic grace enjoyed by countries that contribute around the world.

It follows decades of pressure with high tempo operational deployments over 15 years, the ill-fated civilianisation project of 2010 and the impact of Covid-19 on deployment and training, along with using military personnel to run quarantine facilities.

The most commonly cited reason for people leaving was poor pay with just 18 per cent of those in the Army saying they were paid fairly and 70 per cent of those leaving the Air Force saying low pay was a trigger to quit.

Chief of Defence Air Marshal Kevin Short told former Minister of Defence Andrew Little in a September 2023 briefing that the NZDF would have difficulty meeting the needs of New Zealand and the Pacific during the November-to-April cyclone season.

A L119 105 Light Howitzer fires during exercise Lightning Kiwi. Photo / NZDF

Short cited the lack of people in critical trades affecting the NZDF’s ability to do its job and described a “perfect storm” scenario with outdated equipment and supply chain issues causing repair and maintenance timeframes to stretch out, removing equipment from use.

It was further frustrated by the needs that came with bringing new equipment into service and the expectation that would further degrade NZDF’s capabilities, he said.

The “lack of suitably trained and experienced personnel” meant three Navy patrol vessels were not at sea because of an inability to be operated safely.

In addition, workforce shortages would keep the HMNZS Canterbury – the Navy’s main transport vessel – tied up until March 1 when the cyclone season was almost over. While HMNZS Manawanui was taking up the role, it couldn’t serve as a helicopter platform.

In a heavily redacted section, it raised concerns about the Navy’s helicopters, saying the Seasprite “serviceability remains a major concern”.

The Army was available for domestic emergency responses but faced “significant limitations” to offer assistance in the Pacific and “almost no capacity” to manage regional and domestic needs at the same time.

Not only would the Army struggle to manage two needs at once, the absence of the Canterbury meant it could not ship heavy equipment and vehicles needed for disaster assistance, which would “significantly undermine the overall agility and utility of the disaster relief response forces”.

The Air Force was also stretched with the 50-year-old Hercules retiring ahead of replacements arriving this year along with difficulty maintaining an expected workload while introducing the new aircraft.

NZDF personnel patrolling in Bamiyan province in Afghanistan. New Zealand's contribution played a significant role in closer relations with the United States.

Little was also warned that the Boeing 757 passenger transports would not always be available because of required service and maintenance work – an issue that threatened Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s trip to meet his Australian counterpart before Christmas.

Short also warned “low crew numbers present risks to sustained deployments” of Air Force helicopters which, if needed offshore, would need commercial transport, or Australian military planes if needed outside New Zealand before the Canterbury was available.

Warnings about the dire state of affairs stem from at least June 2022 when the MInister of Defence – at the time, Peeni Henare – was told unsustainable levels of attrition that would limit the NZDF’s ability to do its job for a decade or longer.

An NZDF “interim workforce plan,” dated May 2023, said it had lost almost a third (31.25 per cent) of fulltime and trained service personnel in the 21 months up until April 30, 2023.

It said the NZDF tried to pay within 5 per cent of market rates for jobs, but “this has not been achievable since 2018 due to insufficient funding”. Since then, defence personnel were paid 5-16 per cent less than those working elsewhere in the same jobs.

A 2023 Army briefing paper offered the example of a lance corporal working as a mechanic. In 2008, that person was paid $54,094 a year and was now, 15 years later, receiving $66,021. If pay moved with inflation, they would now be getting paid $86,260, meaning the “individual’s spending power has eroded by $20K over 14 years”.

In considering retention payments, it said they had to be of a significant level and over two years with the roughly 1650 people eligible receiving an average of a $15,000 payment from a total pool of $25 million.

An Air Force briefing paper mooted incentive payments of $25,000-$50,000 as most likely to encourage personnel to stay, with payments up to that level having only a moderate impact.

HMNZS Canterbury is unavailable until March 2024 because of crewing issues. It is a critical part of NZDF's disaster response. Photo / Peter Meecham

A February 2023 briefing said most of those leaving were lance corporals, corporals and sergeants, which meant the loss of “experienced and capable” leaders that impacted on efforts to keep personnel, train people and actually carry out operations.

The loss of those ranks was the Army’s “greatest concern”, said the report, and was a “retention crisis” that led to “a lack of quality and suitable junior leaders and trainers” that had an impact on its effectiveness. It said the “crisis” had led to units unable to reach readiness or capability levels, meaning they would struggle to achieve the jobs they were meant to in optimal timeframes.

Pinch-points included the Royal New Zealand Signals Corps, which managed the Army’s communications networks. It currently had one systems engineer at the rank of sergeant who was posted to a training role whereas NZDF’s baseline requirement for offshore deployment was to send two people at that rank.

Others included the Navy’s marine propulsion technicians – those below decks who keep the engines running – which had lost 57 per cent of its workforce. They were called “ship stoppers” because the “Navy cannot send ships to sea without them”.

An Army briefing raised certain roles as being of “strategic significance”, saying it had identified plumbers as needing retention payments to avoid the risk of not having any available for operations.

NZDF documents have canvassed options for increasing the number of people entering service through working through a backlog of medals, providing childhood care at military bases, refining the recruitment process and adjusting entry criteria – including medical requirements – for people enlisting into certain roles.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter being loaded onto an Australian military transport.

There was no reference to the NZDF in the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan. Asked about the “crisis”, Minister of Defence Judith Collins declined an interview and issued a statement earlier made public in which the 757 issue was the only issue highlighted.

She said the state of the NZDF was “extremely concerning” and it was “not a reflection on any of those who serve”. She said the Government was “evaluating all options” and pursuing those that offered the best taxpayer value and achievable outcomes.

Labour’s defence spokesman Peeni Henare – who served as Minister of Defence – said talk by Act of investing 2 per cent of GDP into Defence by 2030 was “worthwhile” but the need was such “most of that money is keeping it running”. He said big-cost items such as replacing the two frigates also loomed.

Asked if the NZDF needed more money than had been invested in 40 years, he agreed and said lobbying at Cabinet against other priorities was difficult but less so if the public realised the diplomatic and societal benefits that came from a strong NZDF.

Little, who has since left politics, told the Herald a reduced military contribution around the world impacted on New Zealand’s standing and the diplomatic benefits that followed. On a regional basis, an inability to contribute in the Pacific could harm our relationship with Australia.

It also posed a risk with others, such as China, seeking to gain advantage in the Pacific, he said.

Little said Collins had a difficult task ahead with significant investment needed in people, assets and equipment at a time when public service leaders were being told to look for savings.

David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.