The last time New Zealand sought new frigates for its navy, the feverish sensitivities around defence spending were so prickly that then-prime minister David Lange banned the f-word.
“We are not in the frigate business,” he publicly huffed in February 1987, his office insisting on using “surface combatants” when referring to the vessels. His government was then negotiating with Canberra to join what would indeed become the Anzac frigate project – providing New Zealand in the 1990s with two new frigates and Australia eight.
It wasn’t just the peacenik elements in Lange’s Labour Party who had strong misgivings about spending about $1 billion on the warships. Sir Robert Muldoon’s previous National government had launched an investigation into acquiring a submarine fleet, believing that to be cheaper than new frigates. New Zealand navy officers were secretly posted to Canberra to work on the project alongside their transtasman counterparts who were developing plans to upgrade Australia’s ageing sub fleet to the presently in service Collins-class diesel/electric subs. The idea was that New Zealand would get the same boats.
In the end, Wellington abandoned its submarine fantasy and bought two frigates – half the number it had originally agreed to with the Australians.
For Canberra – New Zealand’s most vital security partner – Aotearoa’s participation in the Anzac frigate project was a test of Kiwi willingness to contribute more towards its own defence.
New Zealand should brace itself for Anzac frigates, round two. Late last month, Australia unveiled plans to modernise and expand its naval surface fleet – including the purchase of 11 new “off the shelf” general purpose frigates. Australia’s Anzac frigates – like New Zealand’s – are fast approaching retirement age. One has already been mothballed and two more are about to be.
We can expect Australian pressure on New Zealand to join a second Anzac frigate project, whereby both navies again acquire the same replacement frigates that, this time around, will not be jointly manufactured by Australia and New Zealand – they will be sourced “off the shelf” from a foreign builder.
Australia, with an eye to reducing its own costs, will argue that it is an opportunity for New Zealand to renew the main elements of its naval fleet at a more affordable, bulk-buy price.
Time is ticking. NZ navy chief David Proctor said in late December that every ship in the fleet, bar the newest and largest, HMNZS Aotearoa, needs to be replaced by the middle of the next decade.
For New Zealand to take part in a new Anzac frigate project, it will need to move quickly if it is to join Australia in selecting the new design. An indication of Wellington’s intentions may come with the mid-year release of New Zealand’s next Defence Capability Plan.
Despite high hopes on both sides of the Tasman that the original frigate project would herald a new era of joint defence procurement, if anything, it has gone backwards. Since 2015, for the first time in their history, both armies now have different standard-issue rifles after New Zealand ditched its Australian-made weapons.
Australia might have been encouraged by the words of New Zealand’s Defence Minister, Judith Collins, when she met Australian ministers last month. Collins later told a Melbourne press conference that both countries had committed “to work together to look for opportunities in procurement to make sure that [when] we purchase, that we are looking to see how that fits with our friends and partners so that we are constantly thinking the Anzac model, where we are better together”.
Yet, like David Lange many years ago, she avoided the f- word.
New Zealanders Bernard Lagan is the Australian correspondent for the Times, London.
