Originally Posted by
Gooey
Jeez there are a bunch of simpletons on PPrune.
The RNZAF Air Combat Force (ACF) were due to receive F-16 when a change of government canceled the deal and scraped the trusty A-4s. Anyway, like the NZ ant-nuclear policy it all got horribly political now which means that it never gets spoken about in public.
Just like comments here, all levels of NZ defence and foreign affairs, and NZ Governments, while fighters were very useful in WWI, II, Vietnam, Falklands, GWI, II, etc etc, the country will bury its head in the sand and hope that nasty critins like CCP and Putin do not exist in the modern 'kind' world.
NZ needs protection of sea lanes, a matter that Kevin short, the current CDF is well aware of. He was one of the nicest guys to have around, but he was always rational.
If the RNZN opened up active reservists, they would man every tub they have, and still have more clamouring to get a berth. All it needs are free deck chairs, an esky, and a couple of trolling lines over the transom. When there were 2.5M Kiwis, there were 1.0M boats... kiwis might not fly but they sure can float.