Ships Navy vs Coastguard

New Zealand is surrounded by sea, but naval enemies are rather more difficult to find. The nearest navies belong to Australia, France, the United States and Indonesia. The United States Navy's budget is bigger than New Zealand's annual turnover of money (GDP). The French Navy is nuclear armed; the Australian Navy consists of 8 Meko frigates (the same as ours) 4 guided missile frigates, 6 submarines and 32 other smaller or less well armed vessels. Indonesia's navy consists of two (ultimately five) submarines, and a huge range of small patrol boats for operations in its huge archipelago.

The object of any navy is to fight other navies. Policing EEZs, search and rescue, and disaster relief are handled in many countries by the coastguard. The difference is that a coastguard assumes it's targets are civilians incapable of gaining access to the latest anti-shipping missiles. This makes a huge difference in the design criteria of the craft.

Because a Navy must assume it is dealing with enemy navies it must compete with other navies' war fighting technology. A Navy is meant to be better than another Navy. But if our Navy mostly deals with civilians why does New Zealand need a Navy at all? Why invest in combat Naval systems to fight other Navies? Why not a coastguard? Norway (a NATO nation) which is far richer than New Zealand largely makes do with a coastguard, as does Ireland.

Our Fleet

The Royal New Zealand Navy fleet consists of two combat frigates, two offshore patrol vessels, four inshore patrol vessels, the multi-role vessel Canterbury, the oiler Endaevour and the dive support boat Manawanui. The Air Force also operates 8 aging anti submarine warfare Seasprite helicopters - the last surviving examples in the world (see Air Force Helicopters).

NZ's half billion dollar oil tanker

HMNZS Endaevour was the most efficient little ship (7,500 tonne) in the Navy. That was largely because her capital and operational costs were low and she delivered fuel and supplies as a good oiler should. But such efficiency could not go unpunished. It might show up the rest of the Navy and make people wonder why we waste so much money on it. SO the logical response to replacing Endaevour was to make sure its replacement was as big and expensive as an oil tanker could be. The new least efficient ship in the Navy arriving at its new home port in New Plymouth around 2020.

Now oil tankers get pretty big. But they are generally simple lumps of steel. You can pick up a newish (2006) large oil tanker (36,317 tonne) second hand (like Endaevour was) for about US$12.5 million although unlike Endaevour these larger vessels couldn't be easily converted to a fleet replenishment oiler. New tankers dropped in price in 2017 with new build Suezmax (the biggest still able to get through the Suez canal) costing about $53 million in February 2017. But the Navy couldn't possibly just build an oil tanker. No it needed a logistics ship.

What is a logistics ship? A ship that carries supplies. Mostly fuel oil, but also avgas, water and the like. As it happens the British and the Norwegians were in the market for a logistics ship at about the same time. They came up with the 37,000 tonne Tide Class replenishment vessel, and offer to do a joint purchase from Daewoo with the New Zealand Navy in March 2016. That would have cost NZ$273 million.

But no, no, no. That was not good enough for the New Zealand Navy. So instead they went to Hyundai Heavy Industries who asked Rolls Royce (who else?) to come up with a design for a 166m metre 24,000 tonne ship that would ultimately cost an unbelievable $498 million dollars. That's $225 million more than the Tide Class. In other words we could have almost bought two logistics ships for the price of this one (as, in fact, we advocate here to replace the frigates).

The design is based on Rolls Royce's wave piercing bow design which it uses for oil industry platform supply ships. It is meant to improve sea keeping in the rough seas of the Southern Ocean. Although the Navy has called her "ice strengthened" she is reportedly only polar class 6 which means summer and autumn polar operations only. They have also called her an "Enviroship" (because civilians swallow such nonsense) although how "enviro" carrying very large quantities of oil down to the Antarctic in a PC6 ship is, is beyond me. The ship will be able to carry 8,000 tonnes of maritime fuel oil, 1,500 tonnes of avgas, 250 tonnes of fresh water (and make 100 tonnes a day), and 12 (count them) 12 ISO sea containers.

It would be able to operate an NH90 helicopter (except the Air Force will never let one go to sea because the NH90 aren't corrosion treated for it) so it may have to carry the Seasprite instead. Yes it will have guns! Two Israeli made Typhoon remote control machine gun stations and a 20mm anti-missile defence six barrel rotary cannon because there are so many anti-ship missiles flying around the Southern Ocean these days (sarcasm).

The new ship will have 98 crew (compared to Endaevour's 50) and a range of 6,400 nautical miles (compared to Endaevour's 10,000). And because it's such a rip off we have to have a name that covers the sickening smell of self serving gold plated shopping with gravis and honour, so they named it HMNZS Aotearoa.

EEZ

The EEZ is patrolled by the OPVs and the IPVs. The frigates aren't used for EEZ patrol because they are too expensive. The NZDF annual report provides the following figures. The Naval Patrol force costs $131 million per year for six vessels wheras the Naval Combat force costs $336 million per year for two frigates. The Naval combat force (frigates) are available for 233 days and is at sea for 180 (between two ships) so effectively they cost $1.5 - $1.8 million per sea day. The OPVs are meant to spend 373 days at sea (for two ships) while the IPVs are meant to spend 460 days at sea (for four vessels) or 833 sea days total. The patrol force therefore costs $139k per sea day on average. If OPVs cost (Est) $75 million per year (for two) we could substitute the frigates for OPVs (as the Irish do) and save $260 million a year.

The OPVs Wellington and Otago are ocean going ships armed with a light cannon capable of killing civilian ships or aircraft a mile away. They have a helicopter deck for the Seasprites and can sail at 22 knots up to 6,000 nautical miles. They can launch RHIBs and carry a container of aid or mission equipment. They have a crew of 80. They are capable small ships of 1,900 tonnes (which for a ship is small, a Cooks Strait ferry would be five times heavier). While the OPVs can enter icy seas they are not icebreakers.

They do not have the structural integrity or brig size to ram and arrest a civilian ship that doesn't want to stop. In January 2015 HMS Wellington could only document illegal toothfishers in the Southern Ocean aboard M.V Songhua and pass the information on to Interpol. This could also have been done by a maritime patrol aircraft, and potentially even a satellite.

The IPVs Taupo, Hawea, Pukaki and Rotoiti are 55m long, 340 tonne launches which have a range of 3,000 nautical miles cruising at 25 knots. They don't have heavy weapons but can launch a RHIB crew to board a vessel small enough to be boarded or willing to stop. They are essentially good for policing New Zealand vessels and foreign vessels nominally operating legally. Like all the Project Protector vessels they have suffered from maintenance and design problems.

Altogether the Navy operates six vessels to patrol an EEZ of 4 million square kilometers (equivalent to 2,000km x 2,000km) over 833 sea days.

Frigates

The Naval combat force is one of the most expensive units in the NZDF. For $336m (50% the total spent by Pharmac on drugs) New Zealanders get two combat capable frigates which go to sea for 180 days total to take part in exercises, stop civilian merchant ships in far off waters, search for contraband, and visit distant ports.

The New Zealand frigates Te Kaha and Te Mana are half way through their design lives. By 2030 they will be effectively obsolete. The MEKO-200 design are all-rounder fleet ships able to hunt submarines or defend against air strikes. They also have a 5 inch gun for seaborne artillery support. Theoretically their turbines can be used to generate electricity in an emergency but this was not needed after the Canterbury earthquakes.

The two frigates are effectively not part of a New Zealand fleet but part of the Australian fleet. Our frigates bring the Australasian frigate count to ten. That is a reasonable fleet. Two isn't. The problem is that politically, most of the time our frigates represent New Zealand, not Australia, so they are neither one thing nor the other.

In a combat situation our frigates could possibly deal with two strike aircraft or one submarine. Against a squadron of strike jets or fast missile boats they would struggle to avoid damage - especially in the shallow waters of an archipelago like Indonesia or the Phillippines.

All the frigates are is a negotiating chip thrown in to make foreign powers look more international. There are, however, cheaper ways of achieving the same thing.

Transport

The HMNZS Canterbury multi-role vessel is regularly deployed to provide aid to Pacific Island nations. Designed by Merwede it is a roll-on roll-off ferry similar to Bluebridge's ferry which has been adapted for military use. It is combined with the most cost effective and efficient ship in the Royal New Zealand Navy - the oiler (refueller) Endeavor for budget purposes.

Canterbury is meant to spend 144 days at sea and be available 303 days. Endeavor is meant to be at sea 105 days a year. Canterbury costs $67 million per year while Endeavor costs 41 million. That means Canterbury costs taxpayers $460k per sea day, and the Endeavor $390k per sea day.

Before Canterbury was purchased the Navy (who were not keen on it at the time) pointed out that for the transport of goods it was cheaper to use civilian commercial services. This remains true, but civilian commercial services are not always available at short notice. Canterbury can also accommodate 250 troops or disaster refugees. In general it takes Canterbury two weeks to get aid to sea in response to a Pacific disaster and another week to reach most of the Pacific.

Canterbury has the capability to carry two Airforce NH-90 helicopters. However because these were not built to a navalised specification they would corrode badly at sea.

Canterbury can land material either via its two 23m on-board landing craft or by docking. The landing craft can carry 40 tonnes each which is effectively two sea containers (or one sea container and one carrier) or two trucks. She has a draught of 5.4m so landing directly onto a beach relies on assembling temporary bridging. In aid situations Canterbury usually docks.

The Endeavor is effectively an oil tanker (5,000 tonnes payload) but is able to refuel ships at sea. This is potentially a useful facility for foreign navies. Endeavor can also carry defensive weapons and a dozen shipping containers. The Endeavor has reached the end of her life and a replacement is being sought. This is potentially an important opportunity.

The Canterbury has had significant teething problems and has design limitations because she was built for quick turnaround trips similar to those made by the Cook Straight ferries. She is the best we have and for the moment will have to do.