Upgrades at Manawatu¯ bases
Military bases at Linton, O¯ hakea and Waiouru are all set for multimillion dollar upgrades as part of the Government’s $2.1 billion investment into defence infrastructure.
Defence Minister Ron Mark announced the investment last week, to be done by 2030, for the regeneration of the New Zealand Defence Force estate, along with a review of the existing properties.
O¯ hakea Air Force base will get $300 million for infrastructure to accommodate Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, which are expected to arrive in October 2022. There will be a new hangar, extra accommodation and mess facilities.
Linton and Burnham, near Christchurch, will receive $134 million for infrastructure to support logistics projects. Linton is also getting other upgrades.
Waiouru will receive a mounting base headquarters communications centre, which is a large warehouse where units can prepare.
A Defence Force spokesman said the existing assets at Linton, Waiouru and O¯ hakea had ‘‘poor functionality, condition and utilisation, requireing significant investment to achieve defence output’’.
The spokesman said the investment for each base was determined through infrastructure plans for each location.
The plans will see Waiouru’s focus change to become a mountain training base.
The spokesman said becoming a mountain base meant giving greater focus to the training area, rather than the camp. It may mean fewer people at the base, but that would be determined by the review. Waiouru would also gain a fire prevention training area and an upgraded communications training area and portable water network.
Linton will gain an explosive store house, a Queen Alexandra’s Mounted Rifles headquarters, a field workshop, a vehicle shelter and a logistics main fleet utilisation warehouse.
Being built are a sewage pump station, a perimeter fence, CCTV and gate hardening, and the electrical network will be upgraded.
At O¯ hakea, an aviation refuelling section and a covered tanker park will be built, while stage two of a waste water treatment plant upgrade will take place and a hazardous waste facility will be refurbished.
A hangar fire suppression deluge tank, airfield lighting and signage, high-voltage upgrade and a standby generator replacement and a low voltage network upgrade are under construction.
There are other projects at all three bases that are yet to be approved.
The Defence Force has released a business plan that states 78 per cent of its estate has less than 30 years of usefulness remaining, and of that, 15 per cent had less than 10 years.
The plan said the Defence Dorce’s roads, waste water, storm water, electricity, gas and communication networks were increasingly unfit for purpose.
In his announcement, Mark said much of the 81,000-hectare defence estate was rundown and outdated, and it needed to be improved to gain, train and retain service people.
‘‘We need to be smart with our investment into the estate.’’
The Defence Force is responsible for the third largest area of Crown land, and manages 58 sites.
‘‘The review, plan and continued investment in the defence estate will result in better working, training and living conditions for all personnel ... We need acceptable facilities in order to support and retain them.’’
The review should be completed in September 2020.