Frigates face $300m update

New Zealand's Anzac frigates, Te Kaha and Te Mana - two of the most expensive and modern items in the Defence Force inventory - will need a $300 million upgrade this decade.

This is spelled out in an updated long-term defence development plan released by Defence Minister Mark Burton at a Returned Services Association conference in Wellington yesterday.

The plan says that, by the end of the decade, the increase in air, surface and sub-surface threats within the Australia-Asia Pacific region and beyond mean the ships' defensive systems will become increasingly ineffective.

"Consequently, the operational capability of the Anzacs will decline to the point where their ability to operate in these environments would carry serious risks.

"The design of the majority of self-defence equipment on the Anzacs will be approaching 25 years of age by 2010. Support will become increasingly difficult and operating costs will rise.

"In some cases, such as the anti-air missile, existing systems are becoming increasingly difficult to support.

"This project needs to be implemented from around the end of this decade."

The development plan lists defence projects costing up to $2.5 billion over the next 10 years, including the $300 million for the frigates, though Mr Burton said only $2 billion in funding would be available.

The figures exclude the $670 million spent buying 105 light armoured vehicles for the Army. The first of these will be delivered this year.

But the figures include several related projects, including the soon-to-be-signed contract to buy replacements for the Army's obsolete Land-Rovers, a new fleet of trucks, Javelin missiles and grenade-launchers, and reconnaissance and communications equipment.

The plan provides for up to $500 million to buy a multi-role ship and a number of ocean-going and coastal patrol craft, a project now out for tender.

It also includes spending up to $1.3 billion on the Air Force - including buying a fleet of utility helicopters.

- NZPA