The State of the Nation

ARMY STATE OF THE NATION 2020

Major General John Boswell, DSD Chief of Army

2020 is the year that challenged us in ways that nobody saw coming. When the year kicked off we were well positioned to deliver on many of the initiatives from the Army25 strategy – our roadmap to becoming a modern, agile, highly adaptive, light combat force was gaining real momentum. The year was shaping up to be a busy one that would build on the successes of 2019.

Then, in January 2020, we heard about 2019-nCoVm, the first case was found outside of its point of origin, and the WHO declared a global health emergency. In February, we started seeing restricted entry at our borders, and on March 24 – the day we were set to celebrate our Army’s 175th anniversary with a ceremony at the National War Memorial in Wellington – our country went into lockdown.

In a few short weeks, Covid-19 changed our landscape, and we were quickly called upon to lend our support. The agility and adaptability that Army25 was seeking to enhance kicked in, and has remained core to our activities over the remainder of this year. Despite the unexpected shift in focus, and our enduring response to our country’s most pressing need, our Army continued to work towards Army25. Work continued in training, equipping and supporting our people. Keystone projects, such as NEA and Protected Mobility, continued to push forward their planning and delivery, and we remained focused on the culture that makes us an inclusive, responsive and professional land force that’s truly trusted by our communities. This article expands on the video message I sent out to members of the NZ Army in early December. It discusses what we have achieved throughout 2020, and highlights where we are heading in 2021 – a year that will continue to throw challenges our way as we get to grips with the ongoing effects of Covid-19 on our country and the world. Read it, digest it, and know that – despite the challenges ahead – we are continually moving forward toward the goals of Army25 and the outcomes it will deliver for you as part of NZ’s Army.

Brigadier Jim Bliss, Land Component Commander

The Land Component’s primary purpose is to maintain combat ready forces to undertake integrated land missions at designated response times. We currently have deployed approximately 75 personnel on eight land missions in the Middle East, Africa, and Korea. Preparing, deploying and undertaking these missions is a key priority in the Land Component.

Concurrently, along with the Special Operations Component, we are committed to providing some 880 security and management staff in 32 Managed Isolation and Quarantine Facilities throughout the country in the fight against Covid-19. Our current deployment cycle is set to meet the operational requirement, whilst providing units and individual soldiers the ability to maintain and develop core skills and retain a level of operational preparedness. Our undertaking of OP Protect, as part of the All-Of-Government response to Covid-19, is securing our borders and protecting and reassuring the population of New Zealand. These operational commitments, constantly under review, will continue into the New Year.

While this operational undertaking is heavy, together with the Air and Maritime Components, we are maintaining our domestic emergency response and disaster relief outputs, and ensuring that our contingency high readiness forces are trained, prepared, and ready to respond to a security or humanitarian and disaster relief operation, at home or in the Pacific. Annual trends of tropical cyclones and extreme fire season conditions, locally and abroad, suggest that it is more “when” not “if” and we must be able to step up and respond as we have so well previously. To do so, means we require our force to be one that is agile, expeditionary, ready, well-led and able to not only survive in uncertain and challenging environments, but thrive and win. In 2021 our focus will be on undertaking operations mandated by the NZ Government, sharpening our core skills to achieve land domain mastery and joint operational excellence, and investing our available training time, when we are off-Covid tasking, into individual and junior leader coursing and development. The Component will continue to support Army growth at The Army Depot, Army Command School and our schoolhouses, and replace, upgrade, and receive new capabilities that will enhance lethality, protection, command and control, communications, and sustainment. Where opportunity exists and travel restrictions allow, we, collectively with Joint, interagency and multinational partners, will look to train and work together with our close Pacific Island friends for mutual outcomes and to ensure a secure, resilient and prosperous region.

Colonel Karyn Thompson, Director Land Domain in Capability Branch – New Capabilities

While it is exciting times in both Capability Branch and the Ministry of Defence with a host of new capabilities either currently being introduced in Service or in the final stages of acquisition, three of the projects where Army is focussed at present is the Protected Mobility Capability Project, Soldier Personal Protective Equipment, and the Network Enabled Army Programme.

Protected Mobility Capability Project

In 2020, the Protected Mobility Capability Project saw the delivery of Polaris MRZR-D vehicles (known as the High Mobility Vehicle-Light, or HMV-L). The first six of these vehicles (plus an additional three, purchased by another project) were delivered during lockdown and will be fully introduced into service in the first quarter of 2021. Feedback from those soldiers who have been trained to operate and maintain the HMV-L has been very positive to date – the vehicles can handle very challenging terrain and are far safer than all-terrain vehicles that don’t have roll-over protection. (Note to users: these HMV-Ls have “E-Track” fitted, to monitor vehicle location and driver behaviour!)

The Protected Mobility Capability Project also gained Cabinet approval to purchase 43 NZ 5.5 Bushmasters (Protected Vehicle-Medium or PV-M) in July 2020. The PV-M is manufactured by Thales Group (Australia) and will come in five variants, (Command and Control, Ambulance, Maintenance Support, Logistics and Troop Carrier) and are expected to begin arriving in New Zealand in 2022. While the current schedule is on track, the impact of Covid-19 on timelines is being carefully monitored. The ongoing NZDF commitment to OP Protect is also understood and requests for NZDF support to Protected Mobility Capability Project will be signalled as early as possible.

Soldier Personal Protective Equipment

The Soldier Modernisation Office within Capability Branch has recently completed a desktop analysis, conducted user workshops, and undertaken proof of concept activities to confirm the capability requirements for new Soldier Personal Protective Equipment (SPPE). The focus has been on identifying the SPPE required for the conduct of land operations across a spectrum of operational scenarios, factoring in the range of tasks, threats and operating environment expected in each scenario. This has now been adopted as CA’s intent for ‘Soldier 25’.

There is a requirement for two distinct SPPE/load carriage equipment (LCE) ‘ensembles’ for soldiers when considering the ‘most likely’ and ‘most dangerous’ scenarios. These are: • A ‘light’ SPPE/LCE for low threat environments that is based on the ability to conduct operations without necessarily wearing a helmet or body armour (but incorporates the ability to wear a high cut helmet and ‘lighter’ vital organ coverage body armour if the situation requires it). • A ‘heavy’ SPPE/LCE for high threat environments that is based on the wearing of a full cut helmet and body armour by default (with wider torso soft armour coverage and the ability to add auxiliary soft armour components). The SPPE concept will translate into: • ‘light’ SPPE being general issue to all soldiers in deployable units for routine training (for all types of operations) and deployment to lower threat environments that are likely to take place at a shorter degree of notice to move (based on number of components that are modular to provide commanders flexibility to balance soldier configurations to match the task, threat and terrain). • A pool of ‘heavy’ SPPE being held centrally for issue at the commencement of PDT for high threat environments that are likely to have a higher degree of notice to move (based on the Tyr

Epic body armour system and

Revision P4 Viper Helmets). • Acquiring new integrated communications and hearing protection headsets for use with new NEA communications equipment and upgrading other issue hearing protection. All Regular Force personnel in deployable Army units will be issued the new ‘light’ SPPE around the beginning of 2022. Reserve Forces and other users in Air and Navy will be equipped in subsequent phases.

Once delivery of the SPPE is underway, the Soldier Modernisation Office will switch its effort back to defining the future requirements for other components of soldier lethality, mobility, survivability, sustainability and C4I.

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Network Enabled Army (NEA)

NEA Tranche One capability delivery is underway with a number of digital systems delivered to our Special Operations Forces and 1st Command Support Regiment who are progressing these through landworthiness and capability integration activities. This includes a Command Post capability for a Light Task Group Headquarters supported by a tactical internet that can be operated over a range of bearers including satellite.

The next large NEA Tranche One activity is a Light Infantry Company fit-out of Mobile Tactical Command System (MTCS) radios. These are GPS enabled digital radios and displays which will enable communications by voice and data. They will also automatically communicate each soldier’s position into the SitaWare suite of Battle Management System applications. This will enhance command and control as well as situational awareness for commanders from Section Commander to the Commanding Officer. The programme is working with the Land Component to plan delivery of the initial training to soldiers in April 2021.

NEA Tranche Two has procured a number of systems to enable risk reduction in several key areas, and is now developing the Business Case for reconnaissance and surveillance sensors for submission in 2021. This has been informed by the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Wargame activity conducted with 1st (NZ) Brigade in July of this year.

Initial planning is underway for Tranche Three which will see delivery of systems proven in Tranche One to critical capability bricks within 1st (NZ) Brigade as well as training systems for TRADOC. Experimentation activities are continuing across the Land Component as OP Protect tempo allows.

Colonel Kate Lee Assistant Chief of Army for Delivery – People

Many of you completed the Pulse Survey in August and the results have been distributed to units. Leaders have access to their own team results, and making use of the Pulse Leader’s Guide provides a good start point for conversations with your people on what is working well and areas that could be improved. Army leadership also study the pulse survey results to ensure we understand the key issues and opportunities for our people.

As we are gearing up to grow in certain trades to prepare for the introduction of new capability, we have been working closely with recruiting to make sure we are in the best position to recruit the right people. We have been working on new initiatives; many which have been led or instigated at unit level, to help attract the people we need in our army. We have a close working relationship with Defence Recruiting and have provided additional staff to work with applicants in the recruiting pipeline. Some of you have been engaging with potential recruits either as a Recruiting Ambassador or through community activities organised at unit level. Quality interactions between the public and our people make a difference and I encourage you to get involved with recruiting activities where your schedules allow.

I also encourage you to get involved with the Gender Inclusive Army project. This is a new project, aimed at improving the experience of service in our Army for all genders. You may already have started to see some action. We have recently released the Parenting Guide for service people and the leader’s guide is almost ready to be published. Feedback so far is that this information contained in one place has been welcome for parents and commanders alike. There are a number of other initiatives underway and we really want you to be involved. As we progress on this journey, I encourage you to provide feedback and get involved.

As you know our performance reporting has become more manageable with the introduction of PDR3. I am heartened to hear so many of you have attended training or watched the PDR3 training video. Your feedback indicates the training has been useful and there has been a great uptake of the new system, with good quality performance discussions already happening. PDR3 will be the key document for careers boards in 2021, and its simpler format removes the need for one pager updates to representing officers. I encourage you to complete your PDR career information tab as it contains important information for you and the career boards. 2021 will see us review our practices in our career management system with a view to delivering information in a different way. We will streamline career boards and the feedback you receive from them, including the format and delivery of board letters. We will start advertising for some roles, giving individuals the ability to bid for posts. Position descriptions will be posted online so you can all understand what development will be required to target and become competitive for roles. Our Career Management focus will start shifting towards facilitation; empowering individuals and their commanders to have career development conversations.

Warrant Officer Class One Wiremu Moffitt, DSD, Sergeant Major of the Army Good people = good soldiers. Thoughts on culture and people

As we come to the end of the year, I am reminded of what we set out to achieve at its beginning; the goals we met, and the unique nature of 2020 as we confronted a shifting crisis and a generational speedbump that altered the foreseeable future. One thing that didn’t surprise me though was the power of people and their ability to assess and adapt to new challenges. We saw that again this year and I guess we will continue to do so through the decades ahead. Ultimately what I’ve come to realise is that it is our people and culture that make this Army organisation such a great place to work and live.

Last month I farewelled my father, a long serving soldier, veteran and NZDF civilian. As I cut through grief and presented a eulogy, I couldn’t help but trace the lineage of an interesting career in Army and his bond to something greater than himself. As the good words concluded, I spoke to a commitment to special tenets – citing that, “our unit, like others, bares many traditions and a strong warrior ethos, and that although true culture is less about words and more about action – I was proud he heeded and displayed both.”

The point I was hoping to make was that he believed in the values of our institution and therefore expressed them in words and principled actions through life. The values of a credible organisation and its resulting ethos must be accepted, and, more seriously, believed in at a personal level before one can enact them in behaviour. The CA has a saying that I often borrow – “good people make good soldiers” and I really believe in it. If at your core, regardless of the soldierly acts we ask you to perform – you are a good person with pure intent, the thinking and the actions you inspire will be equally honourable.

Our culture stems and grows from a history melded in combat. While regrettable, the fact is that we originate from the New Zealand Wars in a contest of wills, expansion, and for indigenous Māori – a right to freedom and stewardship of land. But as a new nation, I believe we are stronger for that contest. Our traditional military is aligned to the British Army and we draw great professionalism, a sense of standards, and fighting doctrine going back to beyond the Roman legions. Equally, we honour Nga Tama Toa a-Tu, our Māori lineage – tribalism, connection with the environmental domains, and our intuitive fighting (warrior) spirit. From royal palaces to pa palisades, we embody those distinct differences and their strengths, transforming them into something original and unique to the New Zealand Army. As we confront new challenges in our generation, it’s useful to question not where we are, but where we stand in the long and unfolding ‘Ngati Tu’ journey. As we attract, recruit and inculcate fledging members of NgatiTūmatauenga, we have got to understand ‘our place’ in the continuum, always conscious of our past. We’ve got to own the responsibility for selflessduty despite obstructions and daily challenges. Lastly, we are accountable to pass over a strong, dutiful, and capable Army to future soldiers of our Force. I have no query about what makes a good Army – the strength of ours resides in the character of its people and its alignment to values greater than ourselves. It is bred in every soldier and officer we bring into the tribe, and who, over time and through tribulation, will see and believe in the things we cherish most. Such is the power of our people and our culture.

Knowing this, next year we will start strong and with a focus on doing the little things better. I will demand of you combat mindedness, higher personal standards, greater acceptance of diversity, and more accountability to leadership and training actions. Get ready – and always get after it!