Army plans to rebuild after MIQ staff exodus

The New Zealand Army is operating at about 70% strength as it looks to rebuild from mass resignations following its MIQ guarding operation.

Finishing the regeneration will take until 2026.

But with troops now training Ukrainian soldiers in the United Kingdom, the army’s land component commander, Brigadier

Hugh McAslan, thinks the deployment will help to regenerate enthusiasm in the force.

The army is facing major hurdles to get back to fighting strength as hundreds of soldiers have left the army. A survey found a quarter were still thinking about it and a third were unhappy with wages.

McAslan said the army was facing the same labour challenges as other industries.

‘‘There’s certainly no doubt that many young New Zealanders, men and women, who joined the army didn’t join to work on hotels.’’

But the 120-strong deployment to the UK to train Ukrainians soldiers would give the army a boost in keeping staff engaged and interested in their work, he said.

McAslan said the UK deployment was ‘‘really helpful’’ for the New Zealand Army’s regeneration as it had seen with the artillery team that had already gone to the UK.

‘‘We’ve got another 120 to shortly head up to the UK. When they return, they will have a whole lot of really good experience from what will be fairly fullon training,’’ McAslan said.

When asked if the army was approaching the limit of how much it could contribute to the training of Ukrainians, he said the current setting of 120 troops was well within its ability.

The army will bring in 43 Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles later this year and is

focusing on a digitisation of its force over the regeneration period. ‘‘We’re not looking to generate the army of 2019,’’ McAslan said.

He said he was watching what was happening with the Russian invasion into Ukraine, and the army was learning from it. ‘‘I think what we’re seeing in

Ukraine is perhaps a return to what would be considered more traditional state-on-state conflict, conventional warfare, characterised by heavy use of artillery,’’ McAslan said.

‘‘But also you see these emerging, and readily available use, of commercial technology like drones.’’

McAslan said the kind of small commercial drones that hobbyists were using in New Zealand were also being adopted by the army.

‘‘You’re seeing them now in an operational environment. It makes the gathering of intelligence, the gathering of information so much more accessible,’’ he said.

‘‘I think they’re important already . . . They are out there; they are part of the environment.’’

In November, the army will carry out large-scale exercises using 50% of the force over two weeks in Manawatū as part of Exercise Torokiki.

‘‘There’s certainly no doubt that many young New Zealanders, men and women, who joined the army didn’t join to work on hotels.’’ Brigadier Hugh McAslan

New Zealand Army’s land component commander