Paul Phelan/WELLINGTON
For almost 10 years Chief of Air Staff Air Vice Marshal Carey Adamson watched the stature of the Royal New Zealand Air Force's (RNZAF) being steadily diminished by successive waves of political negativity, before its future was tenuously stabilised in 1996. At that point, a defence assessment based on the 1991 Defence of Air New Zealand White Paper suspended the process by which New Zealand was being slowly stripped of its credibility in terms of regional security.
Inevitably, the RNZAF's capability, along with morale and commitment, had already dipped close to critical levels - a situation also reflected in the growing concern expressed politically by New Zealand's major allies. By the time the defence assessment team revalidated the earlier White Paper's strategies and guidelines, defence spending had dropped by 38% in real values.
Adamson now believes that the worst is over for the RNZAF. "We've had to cut our cloth to suit our budget. Since 1991, that has meant cutting back on some of our aircraft and with that we've shed some capabilities," he says, referring to the shutdown of assets such as the Andover medium transport fleet and Cessna 421 light utility transports.
It is the RNZAF's regional credibility that is of most concern to its officers, particularly as such a relatively small force is constrained to working in close coalition with regional allies over a diverse range of operations where interoperability is vital, explains Adamson. "We do very little on our own. We conduct maritime patrols between New Zealand and the equator, patrolling extended economic zones for some of the 'micro-states' in conjunction with Australia, France and the local authorities, and patrol right down south of the Antarctic Circle. In the Antarctic, we conduct supply flights from Christchurch as part of a combined scientific support programme which our Hercules and Bell Iroquois operate in support of the New Zealand Antarctic programme and the US National Science Foundation Programme.
"Our defence policy has never really been based on a threat as it is understood in Europe. We don't really have a lot of people pounding on our doors, nor are we likely to in the immediate future, so our role is largely to have the capability to look after any low-key events that might happen in our immediate vicinity, in conjunction with other people; and to contribute forces to a coalition, either with Australia, the five power defence agreement in the Asia-Pacific region, or in the wider global arena.
Because of New Zealand's high dependence on primary product exports and the flagging fortunes of Asia and Russia, however, a complete review of all government spending has been conducted. These are forecast to cut NZ $300 million ($150.7 million) from the national budget, inevitably reversing the expectation of further RNZAF funding increases in the short term.
Anderson must therefore prioritise a range of projects, of which he believes the upgrade of the RNZAF's six P-3K Orions, Project Sirius, is by far the most important. Sirius provides for a new sensor suite which integrates data management systems, electronic surveillance measures, radar, acoustics, infrared electro-optics, magnetic anomaly detector, communication and navigation systems, self-protection equipment, and mission support facilities. "It is similar to what Australia is doing. Although there will probably be some equipment differences, we will be interoperable with the RAAF, the RAF and the US Navy, our major allies. If we do it now, we'll be in step with everyone else, but if we wait and do it later, we'll be out of step, so it's quite important," he says.
Invitations to register interest in Project Sirius were issued in the second week of October by the New Zealand Ministry of Defence, which conducts the acquisition, and Adamson hopes to have a contract signed by mid-1999. The six aircraft will be refitted "nose to tail", as in Project Kestrel, the RNZAF's P-3 re-winging programme, which is now under way, with the first aircraft planned for completion in late 2001 or early 2002. "Our operating environment is very severe, so we accumulate fatigue at a high rate. We assess that the re-winging program should give us another 20-25 years of service. There has been considerable international interest, because nobody's ever done it before."
Another priority is the restoration of RNZAF pilot strength, which had been steadily shrinking to the point where serious deficiencies in capability had appeared. Adamson insists that the contracting out of pilot training functions (such as flight screening and basic flying training, as Australia has done) is not an option for the RNZAF. "We've considered that, but I'm not really interested.
Pilot retention initiatives are critical to restructuring strategies, says Adamson. "We were losing about 25 pilots a year, and were only training 18 a year, which wasn't even close to requirements. Eight years ago, we increased the return of pilot training service obligation from six to eight years, and two years ago from eight to ten. We're now reaping the benefit of the change from six to eight years return of service and, in the future, we'll reap the benefit of the later change. There's a slight gap at the moment.
"We've now instituted an NZ$45,000 [$22,500] bonus scheme for flight and navigation instructors of to encourage them to stay two years past their commitment. The combination of that and the extra return of service has given us a better retention rate, down to about the same as the rest of the air force - a turnover rate of about 9%.
Other projects close to the surface are:
the upgrade and ultimate replacement of the RNZAF's McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk fleet (Flight International, 12-18 August), probably with used aircraft in the Boeing F/A-18 or Lockheed Martin F-16 category; a life of type study on the 14 Iroquios which may result in most of the power train, instrumentaion and communications avionics; a proposal for the replacement of its small fleet of Bell 47-3G-B Sioux training helicopters with equipment in the Bell 206 Jetranger category. This has been released for initation to tender, with the first aircraft due to enter service in 2001; the eventual replacement with C-130Js of its eight Lockheed Martin C-130Hs.Source: Flight International
