NZDF General discussion thread

[Rob c]

Do you think they will likely go back on their proposals for 'increased lethality and comonality with austraila' qoute, as a result? In spite Chinas missile tests in the pacific and tasman sea and threats from Defence Security of the Usa Pete Hesgeth that we raise our defence spending, surely that should shape policy, along with the failures of our Protecter fleet and too few frigates?

At this point in time I don't think either major party see's defence as an election wining item, so they will do as little as possible to be seen as doing something without actually achieving a lot. What needs to be kept in mind is the dire state of our defence forces currently with a large deficient of personnel over all three services, due to poor pay and conditions and limited equipment numbers and age.
As I have pointed out before, the budget for the last 35+ years has average at half the budget in GDP terms of the 1980's and taken in today's terms it means that defence has missed out on in excess of $150B over that time. The $11B allocated will just paint over some of the cracks but will do little to repair the damage that has been done to the NZDF by succeeding governments since 1990. The pollies will say the right words and talk the talk but I see little hope of them walking the talk.