New Zealand Army

[jbc388]

Must be great for the troops to train for combat.
But it looks like this was training for 20th century warfare. No UAS/CUAS. No counter battery fire. Hopefully TS25 will be a bit more challenging and we can use our new drones.
Crawl/walk/run etc.

Re dcp any turret mods for the LAVs should integrate ATGMs.remember raising this here in the past and was told that no need- soldiers can dismount to launch. Many new IFVs have turret with integrated ATGMs. And RWS with IR for the bushmasters. If our friends are doing it must be sensible right.

The major problem is that the NZ Army hasn't had any really offensive combat capability for many years no long range arty, no anti air/drone capability and drones have been around for years!! No heavy armour, very limited anti armour capability. no portable anti air missles, no ATGMs
Also the lack of moderm combat systems eg arty/long range strike, LAV's not being updated!! the mistral missile that NZ did have wasn't purchased with all required systems so not effective!!
Also with Air mobile operations a real lack of helicopters the RNZAF's 8 x NH90's is just not enough!! can't move enough pers and equipment in one go!!
Also not up to date with current ground tactics!! still using last century's warfare tactics!! the leadership is still training for the western desert warfare!!
Also lack of personal and personal training!! hopefully with the extra new funding this will be sorted!

 

[jbc388]

@jbc3 Content deleted because no poster comment on link. It is against the rules to post a link without any original comment by the original poster.
Ngatimozart

 

[Nighthawk.NZ]

VAMTAC vehicle prototype on way to New Zealand to install & test NZ communications and then for training purposes before main fleet is built.

VAMTAC vehicle prototype on way to New Zealand | Ministry of Defence website

 

[Warhawk]

NZ army should upgrade it's fire support for Infantry and Artillery with SwitchBlade 300 and 600 series 10km and 40km or similar.

 

[ADMk2]

NZ army should upgrade it's fire support for Infantry and Artillery with SwitchBlade 300 and 600 series 10km and 40km or similar.

Why? Why those particular systems?

Why not Anduril’s Altius 600 / 700 Loitering Munitions, for example? They reportedly have better range, lethality and similar portability. But at what cost?

That is the nature of capability acquisition, there are plenty of trade offs to be considered…

 

[StevoJH]

There is also the question (in the drone space specifically) of whether a particular piece of equipment procured now will actually still be viable in 12-18 months.

And the quantities being used by both sides in Ukraine probably aren’t really viable to procure in peace time, especially for a small nation like NZ.

Focus on the items with long lead times, maybe procure very small numbers purely for training and familiarity purposes, but that is it.

 

[Warhawk]

There is also the question (in the drone space specifically) of whether a particular piece of equipment procured now will actually still be viable in 12-18 months.

And the quantities being used by both sides in Ukraine probably aren’t really viable to procure in peace time, especially for a small nation like NZ.

Focus on the items with long lead times, maybe procure very small numbers purely for training and familiarity purposes, but that is it.

That is the real problem with NZ defence relevance and Obsolete equipment since glory day's of 80's. NZ needs to equipment Defence forces for modern conflict environment and not put it's people in a environment that they don't have the equipment to do the mission they are sent for.

 

[ngatimozart]

That is the real problem with NZ defence relevance and Obsolete equipment since glory day's of 80's. NZ needs to equipment Defence forces for modern conflict environment and not put it's people in a environment that they don't have the equipment to do the mission they are sent for.

Yes it does need to be equipped for 21st century warfare, but not much point acquiring flash kit if there is no one to use it. We need to grow the numbers of people I n NZDF and grow those peoples skill sets and capabilities.

Why buy US drones when the US is both expensive and proving unreliable. We should be looking at what the Ukrainians are doing, and how they are doing it. They are the ones who are world leaders in this. We could even acquire licenses to manufacture their drones here, and build our own. It becomes a sovereign capability and contrary to what our political and bureaucratic elites think, we have the manufacturing capability already existing in NZ. Lots of cheap small drones are far better than a few expensive imported drones.

 

[ADMk2]

There is also the question (in the drone space specifically) of whether a particular piece of equipment procured now will actually still be viable in 12-18 months.

And the quantities being used by both sides in Ukraine probably aren’t really viable to procure in peace time, especially for a small nation like NZ.

Focus on the items with long lead times, maybe procure very small numbers purely for training and familiarity purposes, but that is it.

You address that with rolling capability acquisition projects. You don’t buy Switchblade (for example) off the shelf and go - right, well that’s us sorted for the next 20 years, the way most nations have done with Javelin ATGW for example.

You buy Switchblade now so you have useable capability and you are (should) be already planning on what is coming next, 12 or 18 months down the track and so on and so forth. It’s the only way to stay in the “game” so to speak.

The alternatives are to buy capability that may well become rapidly obsolete, or buy nothing and have no capability.

A small quantity for “familiarity” or even training is pointless, IMHO. You could take $10k down to your local DJI store and achieve that. Do foreign courses etc to, step it up a bit and still save a ton of money. You’d also still have no capability whatsoever though and recent years events have show us just how useless “just in time” supply chains are, when things become difficult.

 

[ADMk2]

New Zealand Army amalgamates infantry and mounted rifles into new unit

New Zealand Army amalgamates infantry and mounted rifles into new unit

The New Zealand Army has formally called to attention a newly formed unit, Ngāti Tūmatauenga, in New Zealand.

www.defenceconnect.com.au

Any comments from the locals? QAMR and 1 Battalion, RNZIR are being amalgamated with QAMR becoming a sub-unit of 1RNZIR...

Is this the significant down-sizing it appears? This may well help the integration of infantry and armoured sub-units for motorised infantry operations, but probably doesn’t do a real lot for the Cavalry capability of the NZ Army?

Unless there is another unit that is taking on this role? Any other unit doing the BG recon, screening, escort tasks of a normal Army? And what is the scale of issue? Is NZ still running the 105x NZLAV’s it originally bought? Or has this been reduced? I seem to recall NZ were trying to offload some a while back. Did that go through?

 

[V33A]

Its being done purely because of manning issues.

It was tried in the mid 2000's and deemed a failure due to the degradation of the light infantry skill set.

In that era the plan was both battalions to be motorised with three LAV companies each.
This time it is one battalion with two LAV companies and a PMV company - so a single less capable battalion.

It is another 'half pie' attempt at motorisation and not a fully motorised battalion. There is no mention of support company, headquarters or logistics elements being motorised. A true motorised battalion is more than just its rifle companies being mounted.

As for recon, the light infantry mindset of the NZ army does not really recognise that recon is more than five man dismounted elements crapping in bags, silently packing away their sleeping bags and doing hours upon hours of break contact drills. The current light infantry recon PL set up (as awesome as they are with their shaved legs) cannot effectively do recon for a motorised battalion. They would be overtaken by the rate of advance in a single day and cannot do other tasks that mech / motorised formations require of their recon elements. Tasks such as guards, key point security, flank security, screening, counter recon to name a few. They cannot effectively fight for information the way a mounted recon element can either.

They should have left 1RNZIR to do what they do best, (and are experts in) being light infantry!
If something kicks off in the Indo-Pacific a highly trained, expert light infantry battalion would be better than a half baked motorised battalion.

If army wanted to dabble again in an integrated armoured infantry unit. Why not try something different and give QAMR a rifle company from 2/1 and grow from there? Re role what is left of 2/1 into either a littoral or experimental role - similar to what Australia has done with 2RAR or 1st Armoured, but smaller obviously.

 

[At lakes]

New Zealand Army amalgamates infantry and mounted rifles into new unit

New Zealand Army amalgamates infantry and mounted rifles into new unit

The New Zealand Army has formally called to attention a newly formed unit, Ngāti Tūmatauenga, in New Zealand.

www.defenceconnect.com.au

Any comments from the locals? QAMR and 1 Battalion, RNZIR are being amalgamated with QAMR becoming a sub-unit of 1RNZIR...

Is this the significant down-sizing it appears? This may well help the integration of infantry and armoured sub-units for motorised infantry operations, but probably doesn’t do a real lot for the Cavalry capability of the NZ Army?

Unless there is another unit that is taking on this role? Any other unit doing the BG recon, screening, escort tasks of a normal Army? And what is the scale of issue? Is NZ still running the 105x NZLAV’s it originally bought? Or has this been reduced? I seem to recall NZ were trying to offload some a while back. Did that go through?

I belive a number of LAV's went to the Marines in Chile

 

[ADMk2]

Its being done purely because of manning issues.

It was tried in the mid 2000's and deemed a failure due to the degradation of the light infantry skill set.

In that era the plan was both battalions to be motorised with three LAV companies each.
This time it is one battalion with two LAV companies and a PMV company - so a single less capable battalion.

It is another 'half pie' attempt at motorisation and not a fully motorised battalion. There is no mention of support company, headquarters or logistics elements being motorised. A true motorised battalion is more than just its rifle companies being mounted.

As for recon, the light infantry mindset of the NZ army does not really recognise that recon is more than five man dismounted elements crapping in bags, silently packing away their sleeping bags and doing hours upon hours of break contact drills. The current light infantry recon PL set up (as awesome as they are with their shaved legs) cannot effectively do recon for a motorised battalion. They would be overtaken by the rate of advance in a single day and cannot do other tasks that mech / motorised formations require of their recon elements. Tasks such as guards, key point security, flank security, screening, counter recon to name a few. They cannot effectively fight for information the way a mounted recon element can either.

They should have left 1RNZIR to do what they do best, (and are experts in) being light infantry!
If something kicks off in the Indo-Pacific a highly trained, expert light infantry battalion would be better than a half baked motorised battalion.

If army wanted to dabble again in an integrated armoured infantry unit. Why not try something different and give QAMR a rifle company from 2/1 and grow from there? Re role what is left of 2/1 into either a littoral or experimental role - similar to what Australia has done with 2RAR or 1st Armoured, but smaller obviously.

Sounds like a much better idea giving QAMR an infantry company to develop those capabilities, but this plan sounds cheaper…

Sigh…