The defence of the realm

A few years ago there was a load of stuff in the media regarding the Royal New Zealand Air Force and the loss of its strike capability. If you need to know the reasons behind this the full report is here . The long and the short of it was that as an island nation, many miles from anywhere, with no real enemy (except Australia at Rugby, Netball, Cricket, etc) - well OK, we aren't that chummy with Fiji at present, but that's because they had a military coup - we couldn't really justify many millions of dollars to buy a new fleet of fast jets to replace our classic 1970's Skyhawks. So why raise this now, surely the water has gone under the bridge? Well, the die hard military freaks keep saying we need a strike capabilty, that it is an essential item. Well, I don't like to say 'told you so', but over in Blighty they are getting rid of most of their Air Force. Yes that's right, the UK, round the corner from the eastern bloc, close friend of the US, collaborator and ally in Gulf War One, Gulf War Two and Afghani-nam, are getting rid of the majority of the RAF's frontline attack aircraft. Why, they can't afford to run them. As much as I love jet aircraft, they do cost a few bob to run; teaching the guys that have the cool job of flying them doesn't come cheap, nor is the fuel and maintenence.

So this raises an important question - should the New Zealand defence force actually have any armed force capability? Maybe we need to redirect our efforts in different ways. For the air more heavy lift and search and rescue capability, we can look after the pacific, support our island neighbours and catch out those dodgy fishing fleets; ditto for the navy, maritime search and rescue, more fisheries work, etc. For the army, how about redeploying them to be a fully paid civil defence; almost monthly we have floods, slips, forest fires, earthquakes, etc. Lets use them to protect the citizens of the country and leave those overseas to sort their own problems out.

On a happier note I read that there is a new Tricky album due out; the interview is pretty unreal, giving a real insight into how he thinks. Can't wait!!