The United States has flown highly sophisticated Global Hawk drones through New Zealand airspace, official papers reveal.

A soldier who died after falling into a Waiouru lake during a training exercise should have been able to release a 20kg gun easily, the former Chief of Army says.

A 25-year-old soldier was injured after falling 5 metres into a dry riverbed near Dannevirke.

When a handful of surviving veterans of the legendary 28th Maori Battalion rose yesterday, they knew they had one more special mission.

Some family members of Corporal Douglas Hughes say they want an open inquest to satisfy their questions over the soldier's death.

The coroner who declined a full inquest into the suicide of a gay soldier is a Mormon church elder who attacked same-sex marriage in a submission to Parliament, saying it was an unnecessary "social experiment".

New Zealand's new Chief of Army has been appointed, it was announced today.

Two wounded soldiers were put at risk by Defence bosses who decided to fly them back to New Zealand with their killed comrade.

Sol Te Whata, 95 today, reckons his uncle's blessing before he left for World War II was one of the things that brought him home safely.

A senior Taliban leader thought to be behind a roadside bombing in which three New Zealand soldiers died has reportedly been killed by coalition forces.

A new fundraising trust has been set up to help families of New Zealand soldiers wounded or killed in Afghanistan.

An armed military man found dead at Linton Camp had recently separated from his partner and mother of his two children.

A 23-year-old man has died at Linton Army Base following a stand-off with police lasting more than five hours today.

Private Michael Victor Ross, 29, from Kaitaia, has not been seen since he fell overboard from an inflatable boat while returning from a training exercise in a lake.

Hopes are fading that a soldier missing in a lake near Waiouru will be found alive, Inspector Steve Mastrovich says.