DEFENCE
Investment in defence capabilities critical to national resilience It’s been a high tempo summer for the NZDF, writes Defence Minister Hon Ron Mark. White Island/Whakaari recovery, Southland flooding evacuation and Australian bushfire assistance underline need for resource availability.
Hon Ron Mark is Minister of Defence. He served as mayor of Carterton from 2010 to 2014, and previously served as an officer in the New Zealand Army and in the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces.
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Last year the New Zealand Defence Force were involved in 58 operations. The summer period was a particularly busy time, as on top of our usual deployments we responded to consecutive humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. The women and men in our Defence Force are our greatest asset and were there to support our community and our neighbours when it mattered most. There was little respite as we went from one key operation to the next, starting with the recovery operation at White Island/Whakaari. The HMNZS Wellington set off and at the request of NZ Police we planned the operation. Eight of our brave women and men ventured onto White Island/Whakaari, demonstrating the professionalism and high capabilities of our personnel.
On top of this, the Australian bush fires kept NZDF busy as 118 personnel were deployed to Australia to assist our neighbours. This support was being provided in addition to the NZDF firefighters deployed to bolster numbers of emergency responders on the ground. These NZDF personnel, many who had cut their holidays short, included New Zealand Army engineers, plant operators as well as medical and environmental health teams. Three NH90 helicopters were in the air for over 180 hours and our C-130 Hercules transported 60 Australian Defence personnel, 14,600lbs of equipment and 45,000lbs of firefighting foam between regions. A Boeing 757 also completed a quick stopover to uplift 54 Republic of Fiji Military engineers from Nadi to
Line of Defence
