A fleet of five Mogamis would suit NZ well.The problem is not to many hulls just not enough trained personnel to cover critical roles. This dates back to the Key government decision to change the terms and conditions of service from a service based system to a system based on civilian industry practices. This has lead to fully trained personnel leaving for better paying jobs outside the services. These changes have been a disaster in terms of retention of skilled personnel and due to the pollies not wanting to admit they made a mistake, this problem is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.
The OPV's and IPV's are currently not in sea service so scapping will achieve nothing, also the navy has about 2200 personnel, but it is the lack of the experienced personnel in the right qualification brackets that is the problem. A Mogami takes around 90 crew so the numbers are not the problem.
5!!!????A fleet of five Mogamis would suit NZ well.
Not all would need to be in service, i.e. one in reserve or a minor availability, one in a major availability and three rotating through deployments.
They could be acquired over and extended period providing plenty of time to train crews, say one every three to five years.
Their multi role nature would also permit NZ to get into mine warfare and other areas.
NZ’s navy realistically needs a clean slate approach going forward.5!!!????
They just ordered 5 Seahawks, let alone frigates!
I reckon 3 would be optimistic.