The New Zealand Government was expected on 6 March to release a review of a controversial Lockheed Martin F-16 lease-to-buy deal.
No final decision on the deal's future is likely until later this month, however. The office of New Zealand defence minister Mark Burton says the public report will be released in advance of consideration of the full version by the New Zealand Cabinet.
The office adds that, while no date has been set for the Cabinet debate, "they will want to move quickly. The sooner a decision is made, the more cost-effective it is". The lease, dated last August, requires New Zealand to give 180 days' notice of any intention to cancel or modify the deal.
New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark has acknowledged that Treasury officials have visited Washington for talks on the costs of the deal, and she has called upon the USA to carry some of the expenses involved with any cancellation. Clark warns that the deal compromises New Zealand's ability to upgrade the remainder of its defence forces.
Clark's comments prompted US diplomatic officials in Wellington to call publicly for the deal to be honoured. Clark's proposal also drew fire from former defence minister Max Bradford, who describes the Prime Minister's comments as "disingenuous".
Bradford warns: "If the government cancels the F-16 contract and doesn't intend to replace our last Leander frigate inside five years, there will be no sharp end to our defence forces."
The review was commissioned in December and is led by Derek Quigley, former chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee.
Source: Flight International
