Maritime Forces Review

Fleet composition option for the Royal New Zealand Navy

The analysis of vessel types that will meet the policy gaps identified earlier in this paper led to the development of a fleet composition option to meet civilian and military requirements. This option is considered to be the minimum that is achievable within the $500 million capital funding provision. Consultation with industry may reveal other more innovative options that are better able to meet the requirements.
In the process of drawing together military, foreign policy and civilian requirements, it became clear that meeting this extensive array of tasks in widely varied environmental conditions would require a Navy with five distinct elements: naval combat forces; naval support forces; naval patrol forces; and mine countermeasures and diving support forces. The need for a hydrographic survey capability is the subject of a separate review.

Naval combat force

A naval combat force is required to undertake the most demanding military tasks. These include the defence of New Zealand’s territorial waters and EEZ, meeting our alliance commitment to Australia including in responding to South Pacific and Southern Ocean contingencies across a broad front, meeting our FPDA obligations and contributing to UN and other multilateral peace support operations. The naval combat force has a diplomatic and military role in demonstrating New Zealand’s commitment to regional and global security through ship visits, training and exercises with other countries.
The Navy currently has a naval combat force of three frigates with embarked Seasprite maritime helicopters, and is supported by the naval support force. The naval combat force will be reduced to two frigates when Canterbury is taken out of service in 2005.
Because the ANZAC frigates have few training bunks, they need to spend considerable time on combat training tasks in order to maintain sufficient crew to provide an appropriate level of capability to meet operational requirements. This high training requirement, in addition to operational commitments and maintenance requirements, means that in a 12-month period, the Navy would be able to guarantee one frigate for operational tasking for no more than six months.

The Review has confirmed the retention of Canterbury (to 2005), the two ANZAC frigates, Te Kaha and Te Mana, and the tanker Endeavour to respond to the defence policy objectives associated with Australia, Asia-Pacific and global obligations. This fleet, however, would only be able to provide one frigate for such tasks for up to six months in any twelve-month period.

Naval support force

The naval support force provides two capabilities; underway replenishment of deployed forces and sealift. Underway replenishment is currently provided by the fleet tanker, Endeavour.
There is no capacity for sealift at present. Based on the findings of the 2000 Sealift Review, the Government determined that, given the infrequent need for sealift, the ability to charter commercial ships when required, and the lack of versatility for other tasks, the acquisition of a dedicated sealift ship would not be a wise investment. A better investment would be a MRV that can undertake a number of roles in our region, including a limited tactical sealift capacity for disaster relief; humanitarian relief operations; peace support operations; military support activities; and development assistance support in the South Pacific. It must also take over the training role currently performed by Canterbury. The MRV will be available to supplement the naval patrol force when not engaged on these roles.

The Review has confirmed the gap in tactical sealift capability. A MRV with the ability to offload personnel and equipment without access to a port is considered an appropriate configuration given the roles. The MRV is also required to contribute to civilian patrol tasks, humanitarian and disaster relief and military support operations.

Naval patrol force

Patrol capabilities are required to conduct maritime surveillance, in conjunction with maritime air patrol assets, in the New Zealand EEZ, to assist South Pacific Island states patrol their EEZs and in the Southern Ocean. Surface surveillance provided by the naval patrol force would complement aerial surveillance and other sources of information.
This Review, and consultation with civilian agencies, suggests that a mix of five small inshore patrol vessels for most of the inshore tasks and at least three capable OPVs, plus the MRV, for the offshore tasks would meet this requirement.

The Review has identified a significant capacity gap in the provision of inshore, offshore and South Pacific patrol. Additional capacity in the form of a mix of inshore and offshore patrol vessels will need to be acquired if this role is to be met. There is an option to reconfigure the existing IPCs although a speed capability gap will remain.

Mine countermeasures and diving support force

This capability is provided by the diving support unit, the diving tender, Manawanui, and four of the IPCs. The latter are manned and operated by the RNZNVR and located in the major ports throughout New Zealand. These vessels would still be required to undertake mine countermeasures tasks if they were modified and utilised to undertake inshore patrol duties.

The diving support vessel Manawanui is retained to perform clearance diving tasks and mine countermeasures. This is a full-time specialist role, and there is limited capacity to perform other roles. The four IPCs also contribute to the performance of this role.