Contributions to High Level Outcomes
The Government’s overarching goal is to grow the New Zealand economy in order to deliver greater prosperity, security and opportunities to all New Zealanders. The External Sector1 contributes to this goal in several ways through its:
- activities to reduce or manage the risks to New Zealand from global and regional insecurity and trans-national threats (a critical precondition underpinning economic growth and social well-being);
- aid to promote the security and sustainable economic growth of developing countries, especially in our region;
- contributions to the development of international rules for dealing with global issues and promoting the conduct of international trade and commerce;
- work to increase the competitiveness of New Zealand business; and
- initiatives to assist the flow of people, capital, trade, technology and ideas to New Zealand to build a more competitive resource base for the economy.
The world economy is currently facing its biggest challenge in 80 years, with global economic growth and world trade in sharp decline. The departments in the External Sector will give priority to maintaining New Zealand’s security and managing New Zealand’s international relations through the recession, and ensuring New Zealand is well placed to take advantage of the eventual recovery. Each department will also give high priority to improving the value for money received from the resources appropriated in its Votes.
The NZDF’s contribution to the External Sector is through the main Defence Outcome of “New Zealand Secure and Protected from External Threats Now and in the Future.” This is reflected in the following tasks:
- securing New Zealand, including its people, land, territorial waters, EEZ, natural resources and critical infrastructure by contributing to the whole of government efforts and support to multi-agency operations and tasks involving disaster relief, resource protection, international and local crime, security and intelligence as well as ceremonial and other support to government; and
- reducing risks to New Zealand from regional and global insecurity and participating in regional and international security systems by the conduct of a wide range of military operations overseas as well as international confidence building exercises and military diplomatic tasks, which include a network of military adviser and attaché staff serving overseas.
At any given time the NZDF has deployed between 400 – 1,000 personnel, on more than 10 different operational missions around the world in support of New Zealand’s security. The most significant recent missions are predominantly Army elements in Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands and Afghanistan, which almost equate to a light infantry battalion-sized group. From time to time, Air Force elements – including C-130 Hercules aircraft - provide resupply and rotation support to currently deployed forces. Various Navy and Air Force elements are involved in providing support to multi-agencies in and around New Zealand.
On a day-to-day basis in New Zealand, the force elements of the NZDF also train to be ready, if and when required by the Government, to ensure New Zealand’s security. Preparedness for operations, wherever and whenever they may be, is the overriding requirement of the NZDF.
The NZDF, through Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand, also contributes to the External Sector by ensuring veterans are recognised for their service and that the impacts of service on veterans and their dependents are monitored and addressed. The Government’s intent, underpinning policy related to veterans, is “Respecting Veterans, Honouring Service.”
The main Defence outcome is achieved through the four Defence Intermediate Outcomes of:
- Secure New Zealand, including its people, land, territorial waters, EEZ, natural resources and critical infrastructure.
- Reduced risks to New Zealand from regional and global insecurity.
- New Zealand values and interests advanced through participation in regional and international security systems.
- New Zealand is able to meet future national security challenges.
A representation of contributions provided by the NZDF during the year against these intermediate outcomes is provided below.
Intermediate Outcome 1: Secure New Zealand, including its people, land, territorial waters, exclusive economic zone, natural resources and critical infrastructure
Secure New Zealand
This intermediate outcome is divided into the sub outcomes of:
- Protected from Terrorism.
- Protected from Transnational Illegal Activities.
- Protecting Persons and Infrastructure from Civil Instability and Disasters.
All three Services maintained a capability to assist with counter terrorist responses by providing logistical support and surveillance standby capabilities. A Counter-Terrorist Group continued the ability to assist the NZ Police in counter-terrorist operations, including maritime counter terrorism.
The NZDF demonstrated its ability to work closely with a range of agencies in protecting New Zealand from illegal activities. The Navy and Air Force conducted regular surveillance patrols of our EEZ and the Southern Ocean. The NZDF continued to support the New Zealand and United States Antarctic programmes and provided terminal and logistics support at Christchurch, McMurdo Station and Scott Base, as well as C-130 Hercules flights.
Personnel from all three Services were ready at designated degrees of notice to assist with natural and manmade disasters within New Zealand. (See the table in the section on Services in Support of the Government and the Community for more details.)
Intermediate Outcome 2: Reduced Risks From Regional and Global Insecurity Through:
A Secure, Peaceful and Stable Australia
The Anzac relationship has long been our most significant defence partnership. Both the Australian and New Zealand defence forces have continued to invest in joint training, interoperable equipment and shared doctrine. This has been reinforced during the reporting period by our combined efforts in regional peacekeeping in Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands, and participation in numerous exercises and support activities, including those mentioned below.
During July 2008, a P3-K Orion aircraft and crew took part in Exercise Kakadu in Darwin. This is an annual, two-week exercise primarily based on anti-surface warfare aimed at developing interoperability among participating countries. As well as New Zealand, units from Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, France, and Thailand took part in the exercise.
NZDF personnel, artillery guns and ammunition, Iroquois helicopters, a P-3K Orion and a C-130 Hercules deployed to Townsville during October 2008 to take part in Exercise Swift Eagle. The exercise involved practising tactical planning, deployment procedures and interoperability with the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
HMNZS Te Kaha was involved in exercises around the waters of Western Australia over the period 17 November – 5 December 2008. This was a valuable opportunity to not only share operational capabilities, but provide benefits to both navies in developing and improving skills.
Five New Zealand Defence Force fire-fighters headed to Melbourne on 13 February 2009 as part of the National Rural Fire Authority contingent to assist Australian fire crews as they battled the bushfires in the state of Victoria. The New Zealand fire-fighters, including those from the NZDF, departed Auckland aboard a RNZAF Boeing 757 aircraft.
A Secure, Peaceful and Stable South Pacific
Along with Australia, New Zealand takes a lead role in promoting peace and security within the South Pacific, which extends out as far as Timor-Leste. The NZDF continued to provide peacekeeping, bilateral military engagement, the Mutual Assistance Programme (MAP) (professional development for disciplined forces in Asia-Pacific), EEZ surveillance, search and rescue, and stand-by capabilities for disaster relief.
The NZDF continued to contribute military personnel to the Australian-led International Security Force (ISF), and the United Nations Interim Mission to Timor-Leste (UNMIT), as well as having training and advisory staff embedded in the Timor-Leste Defence Force under the MAP.
During October 2008, the RNZAF’s 3 Squadron Detachment of two Iroquois helicopters and crew returned to New Zealand after an 18-month long mission in Dili, Timor-Leste.
The NZDF sustained a platoon of soldiers to the Regional Assistance Mission in the Solomon Islands (RAMSI). The contingent performed regular patrols, liaised with locals, assisted RAMSI police in downtown Honiara and helped with external security at Rove Prison.
Eight NZDF personnel joined the United States Nursing Ship Mercy to provide medical support to the people of Papua New Guinea as part of Pacific Partnership 08 – a humanitarian and development mission. Working alongside military personnel from 13 other nations, the NZDF medics undertook surgical procedures and primary health care activities around Port Moresby.
Navy, Army and Air Force personnel were also involved in Exercise Tropic Twilight supporting a NZAID-led humanitarian mission in the Cook Islands.
HMNZS Resolution, the RNZN’s offshore survey vessel, deployed to Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands for a three-month survey task to update navigational charts, some of which were dated as far back as 1898.
A Secure and Stable Asia-Pacific Region
In promoting a secure, stable Asia-Pacific region, the NZDF has continued with regular contact and dialogue, assistance, confidence-building measures, conflict deterrence, and ongoing support to regional security arrangements.
The NZDF hosted contingents from the armies of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) – New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Australia – at an exercise in Burnham Camp, near Christchurch during September 2008. Exercise Suman Warrior 2008 was a Command Post Exercise based on an asymmetric, non-conventional and complex operational environment.
HMNZS Te Mana and a P3-K Orion aircraft participated in Exercise Bersama Lima – the annual FPDA combined maritime/air exercise held in Malaysia and Singapore.
During January - February 2009, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) conducted their annual artillery exercise in Waiouru alongside the 16th Field Regiment of the NZ Army. Exercise Thunder Warrior is a collaborative live-firing exercise that involves about 500 personnel from the SAF and a single six gun battery-sized unit from the 16th Field Regiment.
A More Secure and Stable World
The NZDF contributed to this outcome through the delivery of annual outputs that provide contributions to collective security operations, peacekeeping, and peace-enforcement conducted by the United Nations and other relevant multinational agencies.
NZDF personnel continued to serve in United Nations missions in Iraq, Israel, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, and the Republic of Korea.
The NZDF commitment in Afghanistan is an important element in New Zealand’s contribution to international state-building efforts in assisting Afghanistan to meet its significant security, political and developmental challenges. NZDF personnel currently operate in Afghanistan under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mandate. The NZDF currently leads the Bamyan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), provides key staff to ISAF HQ, assists in training the Afghan National Army, and contributes to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA).
In addition, NZDF medical staff, in conjunction with United States military medical staff, have run some very worthwhile medical training throughout the province. RNZAF C-130 Hercules aircraft and crews continued to provide strategic airlift support flights to and from Afghanistan.
During September 2008, HMNZS Te Mana returned to New Zealand after spending three months carrying out approach and assist visits in support of maritime and security operations in the Central and Southern Persian Gulf. These operations were aimed at promoting the free flow of commerce, protecting infrastructure and countering terrorism, piracy and drugs, arms and people smuggling.
A 172-strong contingent from 2/1st Infantry Battalion based at Burnham participated in an army training exercise with forces from Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States. Exercise Cooperative Spirit, held in Hohenfels, Germany, provided an opportunity to engage in training and to test interoperability with partners across a range of conventional military and peace-keeping operations. The exercise enhanced skill levels and allowed NZDF personnel to share experiences and knowledge gained from peacekeeping operations in Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands and Afghanistan.
Intermediate Outcome 3: New Zealand Values and Interests Advanced Through: Participation in Regional and International Security Concerns
This intermediate outcome is divided into the sub-outcomes of:
- Collaboratively Develop and Shape the International Security Order.
- Effective Participation in the International Security Order.
In concert with other relevant government agencies, the NZDF supports this outcome through a range of activities, including participation in confidence-building, defence diplomacy and coalition-building.
Contributions to this outcome during the reporting year included the following:
Ongoing support was provided to UN missions (for details on these see section on Output Expense 16 – Operationally Deployed Forces).
The NZDF played a significant role in a New Zealand-hosted, multi-agency, Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Exercise in September 2008. Exercise Maru was designed to test and demonstrate the legislative, policy and operational capabilities of New Zealand and its PSI partners to respond to the movement of suspected weapons of mass destruction material. Twenty seven countries either participated in, or had observer status, in the exercise. New Zealand was represented at various PSI Operational Experts Group meetings by an interagency team comprising officials from the NZDF, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the New Zealand Customs Service.
The NZDF was represented at the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Intersessional Group and Defence Dialogue meetings in Singapore (October 2008) and Seoul (April 2009), In addition, a Defence official attended the ARF Senior Officials Meeting and Security Policy Conference in Phuket, Thailand in May 2009. CDF NZ attended the Pacific Chiefs of Defence Conference in Bali, Indonesia in November 2008, and he also attended the Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) Chief of Defence meeting held in Putrajaya, Malaysia in February 2009. The NZDF was also in attendance at the triennial FPDA Ministers Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in June 2009.
The standing of our defence relationship with Singapore was enhanced with the signing of an Arrangement on Defence Cooperation.
The NZDF provided a Boeing 757 aircraft to participate in an ARF Voluntary Demonstration of Response (disaster relief) held in Central Luzon, Philippines in May 2009. This aircraft also transported the Australian and PNG participants to the Exercise. A NZDF officer participated in an ARF Intersessional Meeting on Disaster Relief in Bandar Aceh, Indonesia in December 2008.
A NZDF officer co-chaired an ARF Intersessional Meeting on Maritime Security, which was co-hosted by New Zealand, Indonesia, and Japan in Surabaya, Indonesia in February 2009. A second meeting, co-hosted by the three countries, will be held in New Zealand in early 2010.
The NZDF was represented at the Quadrilateral Defence Coordinating Group (QUADS) operational working group meeting held in Hawaii in November 2008. The QUADS allows New Zealand to engage with the US, Australia and the French Armed Forces in New Caledonia to achieve better operational coordination and calibration of military training programmes in the Pacific region.
During the reporting period, the NZDF also contributed to various interoperability, standardisation and technical co-operation meetings and programmes, and other forum workshops.
The NZDF also participated in the MAP (see Output 15.1 for more details on this contribution.)
Intermediate Outcome 4: New Zealand Able to Meet Future National Security Challenges
The NZDF’s contribution to this outcome has been to undertake planning for the future, especially for sustainable future capability requirements. The process used to manage this is included in the Capability Management Framework (CMF). The NZDF and the MoD use a suite of planning aids, including strategic guidance, decision support tools, strategic assessments, capability goals matrices and research/lessons learned. These are all defined in detail in the CMF, which is currently being updated to reflect new capital asset management requirements.
As part of Defence Review 2009, an analysis is being undertaken of the NZDF’s future capabilities and force structure. The NZDF is also working with the MoD to develop an integrated cost model of all NZDF expenditure (both operating and capital), as well as an output-forecasting model for NZDF force element availability.
In addition, the NZDF has encouraged innovation and high standards in education and training; promoting a healthy defence industry in New Zealand; maintaining the security and well being of all New Zealanders through supporting the NZ Police, the NZ Customs Service, Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Emergency Management, Civil Defence and other agencies; assisting Veterans groups; providing courses for the Limited Service Volunteer (LSV) Scheme (see Output 15.3); and supporting the NZ Cadet Forces (see Output 15.2).
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