Defence boss says Navy fragile, ships out of action
A third of the Navy’s ships are idle as the service battles severe staffing woes. But the Navy is not the only part of our armed forces in troubled waters. George Block and David Fisher report
The Chief of the Defence Force told the Government the Navy was “extremely fragile” amid a chronic shortage of staff.
Briefings from Air Marshal Kevin Short to Defence Minister Judith Collins reveal the Defence chief is not mincing words with the Government about the state of the armed services.
“The Navy is extremely fragile with significant workforce issues, particularly within specialist technical trades,” Short told Collins in a briefing dated December 19.
“As a consequence, three of [the] Navy’s nine ships are in commercial care and custody arrangements due to a lack of suitably trained and experienced personnel to operate them safely at sea.”
An NZ Defence Force (NZDF) spokeswoman confirmed this week that three ships were still being looked after by civilian contractors.
They are offshore patrol vessels HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Wellington, and inshore patrol vessel HMNZS Hawea. The three ships were first sidelined in 2022.
The briefing said workforce attrition remains “unsustainability high . . . further diminishing the NZDF’s already depleted collective skill and experience base”.
Attrition has plagued the Defence Force since Covid and is fuelled in part by higher private-sector salaries luring away skilled technical personnel.
Short told Collins the Navy would generally be able to support domestic emergency response requirements, including border protection and civil defence.
A subsequent sentence in the briefing was redacted under a section of the Official Information Act allowing agencies to withhold details where they would be likely to prejudice the defence or security of New Zealand.
The briefing also revealed the HMNZS Canterbury was unavailable until March 1, 2024, due to “unavoidable maintenance and workforce shortages”.
The Canterbury is the best-suited ship in the Navy to respond during the “High Risk Weather Season” (HRWS) over summer, when cyclones are more likely to form in the South Pacific, the briefing said.
Instead of Canterbury, the dive and hydrographic vessel HMNZS Manawanui was the duty vessel to respond to weather crises over this period. Unlike the Canterbury, the Manawanui cannot carry a helicopter.
Another briefing, dated September 17, said the unavailability of the HMNZS Canterbury was the major limiting factor for potential Air Force helicopter support during the cyclone season from November to April.
Over that period, the Air Force may have had to rely on commercial shipping, an Australian Air Force transport jet or self-deployment, the briefing said.
“While all of these options are currently under consideration, they each come with major limitations.”
Last month, the Herald reported that in 2023, the Navy’s ageing fleet of Seasprite helicopters had a serviceability rate — meaning mission readiness — of just 19 per cent.
In 2019 their serviceability was 38 per cent, falling to 30 per cent the following year, 22 per cent in 2021, and 17 per cent in 2022, according to figures released by Defence under the Official Information Act.
Short’s December briefing said the Seasprite helicopter fleet serviceability remained a major concern due to airframe obsolescence and the unavailability of spare parts.
Maintenance staffing levels are only at 71 per cent of the level required for the Air Force’s NH90 helicopters, with trade supervisors described as a “critical vulnerability” at only 50 per cent. “This means maintenance and scheduled servicing, which would have been completed in a day, is now completed over consecutive days,” the briefing said.
Across the services, defence logistic branches have significant staffing deficiencies, the briefing said.
“This has resulted in the closure of maintenance areas in order to consolidate staff. Remaining staff, given the workforce hollowness, are under persistent pressure and shouldering significant burden to ensure major equipment and platforms remain serviceable.”
In the Army, staffing in specialist areas such as logistics, medical, military police and signals was at “minimal levels”, Short’s December briefing said.
“The Army remains fragile with significant sustained workforce shortfalls of experienced personnel . . . remaining at unsustainable levels and recruiting not meeting targets,” the briefing said.
Attrition in the uniformed services was between 14 and 16 per cent each quarter from 2022 to 2023, the September briefing said.