There is only one path into the New Zealand Special Air Service. 243 candidates, just 31 succeeded.
New NZSAS document includes details of missions - including the Kabul firefight that cost a soldier his life;
Te Maia Hei Toa strategy document came out of inquiry into NZSAS raid in Afghanistan in 2010;
Interview with special operations commander and the commander of the NZSAS on attrition and keeping elite soldiers.
Our military has lifted the lid on the elite New Zealand Special Air Service (NZSAS) with the release of a document that includes details of missions it has carried out.
For the first time in its 79-year history, the NZSAS has published photographs and summaries from itsoperations - including the 10-hourbattle in Kabul that cost the life of one of its troopers, Corporal Doug Grant.
It’s a landmark step for the secretive group, with the document serving as an official one-stop-shop for the background, purpose and values of the NZSAS - recognised as New Zealand’s most elite fighting force.
Called Te Maia Hei Toa, the strategy document emerged from the aftermath of the inquiry into the Afghanistan raid known as Operation Burnham and recommendations urging the NZSAS to set out its structure and strategy and how it slots in with New Zealand’s national security structure.
The step out of the shadows follows the regiment’s back-to-back deployments in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 - its busiest period of continuous operational duty since it was first formed in 1955 to contribute to the British counter-insurgency effort in what was then Malaya.
Te Maia Hei Toa, released to the Herald through the Official Information Act, says on its front page that the document sets out “the role of New Zealand Special Forces in modern warfare and national security”.
The “special forces” description draws in units under Special Operations Command, including the specialist explosive ordinance disposal team that went on to Whakaari-White Island during the 2019 eruption, the NZSAS and other specialist units, such as the Female Engagement Team.
New Zealand special forces personnel during the evacuation of Kabul airport in 2021. Photo / NZDF
The document sets out a values statement at a time when partner special forces across the world are wrestling with accusations of war crimes from the conflict in Afghanistan.
Te Maia Hei Toa also sets out in clear language the type of missions for which the NZSAS trains - “special reconnaissance, direct action, and influencing outcomes” - and its requirement to have the ability to operate alongside allied nations.
The document described a force that offered New Zealand a strategic military capability that could be deployed around the world - and a force that worked to operate alongside international partners. It also described how the NZSAS and other special capability units fitted into the national security framework.
It said: “Special operations can be, and often are, conducted by individuals or small teams. Our value is in our highly trained, experienced and mature people.”
It also set out what it was for: “Special operations are inherently focused on significant national or military objectives and are often discreet, mitigated high risk and unorthodox in nature.”
And on the character of the regiment, it said its core tenets were “the unrelenting pursuit of excellence; humour and humility; brooks no sense of class; the highest standards of discipline”.
NZSAS troopers working through the British Council compound in Kabul in 2011 after insurgents attacked and took hostages. Photo / NZDF
It offered insight into the types of missions it carried out, highlighting support to police after the March 15, 2019 mosques massacre in Christchurch, bomb disposal across the Pacific and work in Afghanistan training up the elite Crisis Response Unit (CRU).
The document also included imagery from the 2011 attack on the British Council building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Previous accounts have only emerged in medal citations awarded, such as Lance Corporal Leon Smith’s award for going to the aid of fatally injured Grant. Smith was killed a month later.
It described the five Taliban hostage-takers as “well-organised and well-armed”, using a suicide car bomb to blast their way into the compound and take over the building.
It said the NZSAS and CRU used explosives to get into the compound, rescuing three British citizens. “When fighting the terrorists, a suicide bomber detonated and the building caught fire.”
New Zealand special forces then managed to co-ordinate the escape of the remaining, trapped, civilians through the roof. The operation cost the life of Grant, a CRU operator, with injuries to nine others from the Afghan unit.
The detonation of a suicide bomber's vest inside the British Council offices in Kabul, Afghanistan, set the building ablaze. Photo / NZDF
“The operation highlighted the precision and determination required to successfully resolve hostage situations, and the agility required to conduct, advise and assist operations with foreign partners.”
Other missions highlighted included the NZSAS role in evacuating people from Kabul when Afghanistan fell back into Taliban hands in 2019. Also featured was security support for the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) forum in Papua New Guinea in 2018, during which snipers, military dogs and drones were deployed in support of local forces.
In an interview with the Special Operations commander, Colonel Chris Gray, and the commanding officer (CO) of the NZSAS, who cannot be named, they confirmed attrition had cut into the unit’s depth of experience.
In January, the Herald revealed internal New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) concerns about the number of experienced NZSAS troopers who had left the unit, with the senior command being told the regiment was “vulnerable to collapse”.
The NZSAS CO confirmed that the attrition issue that had hit the wider Defence Force was being similarly felt in the elite unit with the loss of experienced non-commissioned officers (NCOs).
“Often they are the mid-level leaders and they take time to build. If you think of things like for us to be safe and effective with our training, we need a credible minimum product and that takes a few years to build.”
Those NCOs are the linchpin of any military with experienced staff developing specialist skills and providing direct tactical leadership to lesser experienced personnel.
NZSAS personnel training Papua New Guinea security forces ahead of the 2019 Apec meeting in the country. Photo / NZDF
Gray said the NZSAS had been hit, as had the wider Defence Force and public service roles such as nursing and policing, but that the impact on the military reflected the experience of partner nations.
“We’re not alone in that. This is true across special forces communities but also militaries more broadly.”
He said it showed particularly in a comparatively small special forces unit in a military the size of New Zealand’s.
There were “good numbers” for the gruelling NZSAS selection course but those who were chosen needed “a number of years to build”.
Why NZSAS operators are leaving
The NZSAS CO said the cost of living and current lack of operational opportunities were factors behind the regiment’s attrition, coming after an extended period of almost continuous deployments to Afghanistan over more than a decade.
He said the loss of experienced people had not affected the NZSAS meeting of targets the Government had set.
The CO said the attrition payment - up to $15,000 for those who stayed until June next year - had been effective in stemming departures. “It’s amazing to see just how each generation gets better - more humble, more precise, and more ready for future operations.”
He said gaps in specialisation were managed through traditional cross-training, allowing NZSAS operators to lead in their area of specialisation when required.
Those who had left service had gone on “to good things for New Zealand”, he said, in management roles in businesses or using their expertise offshore in areas in crisis. Asked if the Ukraine war was a factor in losing people, he said: “No.”
Massey University senior lecturer Dr Rhys Ball, who has studied NZSAS history, said Te Maia Hei Toa showed the growing development of a linked-up national security system and followed greater openness from the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
New Zealand special forces evacuating people from Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021 as the Taliban once again took control of the country. Photo / NZDF
He said the document provided a broader context to the activities of the special forces which otherwise emerged only when there were events that were seen as or were failures.
While serving that purpose, Ball said, the primary audience for Te Maia Hei Toa was likely “domestic and international security partners” setting out what the NZSAS could or could not offer.
Ball said there was cause for concern over a line which made it clear special forces had an intelligence collection role not only for defence but for “other security agencies”, raising questions about oversight.
Outside the claims made in the book Hit & Run, by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson, the NZSAS have so far escaped being tarred with “war crimes” as a result of their actions in Afghanistan. The Operation Burnham inquiry found no fault with those who had boots on the ground but were critical of the higher command’s failure to communicate emerging knowledge of civilian deaths to politicians and the public.
Special forces units from Australia, Britain and the United States continue to face questions, and in some cases criminal inquiries and prosecutions, for their actions during the War on Terror.
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 joined the Herald in 2004.
