The Royal NZ Navy is facing critical shortages in many areas, say defence experts. Photo: Supplied/ NZ Defence Force
New Zealand's navy has a critical need for equipment and staffing, defence experts are warning, with some saying it needs to align closer to the Royal Australian Navy.
The government has signalled its intention to boost New Zealand's Defence spending beyond is current level of slightly more than 1 percent of GDP.
Bethan Greener, acting director of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies at Massey University, said the Royal New Zealand Navy in particular was at a crunch point for investment.
"That question needs to be answered - 'oh my goodness eight out of nine ships are not going to be in service in the mid 2030s. What do we do?'
"Ships, like aircraft, [are] incredibly expensive."
Replacing the two Anzac class frigates, the HMNZS Te Kaha, and the HMNZS Te Mana, could cost New Zealand up to $4 billion.
In South Korea last week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand should be targeting around 2.5 per cent of GDP for defence.
Greener believed that was too much - but that an increase to 2 percent was necessary if the Defence Force was going to keep being used for disaster relief.
Whatever the investment, she said addressing critical staffing gaps was necessary right across the force.
"I know marine engineers are really difficult to find and retain, in the army it's people who do the info -systems, and systems engineers, so there are these very technical roles, where often, if for example, you're an engineer, you might have a really good option in the civilian world."
She said three of the navy's eight sea-sprite helicopters had to be kept in storage in mid-2024 because there were not enough crew employed with the required skills in order for the aircraft to fly.
Australia - with a much larger GDP - increased its defence budget by $50 billion last year, to be spent over a decade.
Former Australian naval officer and maritime security specialist Jennifer Parker said the country was doubling its fleet of warships, from 10 to 20 - with eight general purpose frigates will be built in Perth.
Most of the new frigates will not be coming into the fleet until the 2030s.
She said there would be a lot of sense in New Zealand's navy becoming more closely aligned with Australia, both in the ships we use and the way we train.
"The challenge for the New Zealand navy, obviously an incredibly professional navy with a proud history, is that the lack of investment over the last few decades has pushed it to getting below a critical mass, and so without aligning capability and training with Australia, it will be difficult to grow capability at a reasonable timeframe or at a reasonable cost."
Former defence minister Wayne Mapp agreed that New Zealand needed to lean into its alliance with Australia.
He said China's actions in the Tasman Sea showed there was value in our force acquiring four frigates, at a cost of more than $8 billion.
"With four frigates you're pretty much guaranteed to have two available to do patrol tasks, around our region, in the South Pacific with our five power defence allies, that is Singapore, and Malaysia and the UK as well - if you've got four, you can guarantee you've got two all the time."
Mapp said the defence force needs an extra thousand people across the services, and to boost their pay, in order for the NZDF to be viable in a changing geo-political environment.
Australia experimenting with uncrewed vessels
Parker said Australia was already experimenting with several uncrewed surface vessels and one uncrewed submarine called the Ghost Shark.
She said these uncrewed surface vessels were mainly for intelligence gathering and surveillance, though it was not clear in the public domain what the Ghost Shark did.
In 2024, the federal government announced six large naval vessels heavily armed with missiles that could run without a crew - though the government has said it plans to operate them with crews.
Parker said New Zealand could partner with Australia to look at uncrewed vessels as technology evolves.
"Certainly they can become a force multiplier, however they will not replace crewed capabilities, so New Zealand will need to have the personnel and funding within the defence budget to be able to acquire those crewed capabilities and replace the current fleet."
The New Zealand Defence Force was approached for comment on personnel needs.
Defence Minister Judith Collins declined an interview with Morning Report.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
