Skyhawks in line for early selloff

By JOHN ARMSTRONG

The "For Sale" tag could be attached to the Air Force's Skyhawks within a year, meaning New Zealand will be left without combat aircraft much earlier than expected.

The fast-track timetable emerged yesterday, just a day after the Government shot down the deal with the United States to buy 28 F-16s.

"By the end of the year, we would want to know if we are carrying on with the Skyhawks for the foreseeable future or not," the Prime Minister told the Herald yesterday, adding that there were "powerful voices" in her Government calling for their swift disposal.

Her remarks followed assurances to Parliament that no decision had yet been made on ditching the Air Force's combat wing.

Helen Clark cast doubt on retaining strike aircraft on Monday while announcing the scrapping of the deal to lease 28 F-16s.

However, it had been assumed that the Coalition would retain the Air Force's 19 ageing Skyhawks until they were retired around 2007.

The future of the jet fighters will now be included in the review of defence policy to be conducted by the Secretary of Defence, Graham Fortune.

During a snap debate on the F-16s in Parliament yesterday, the Prime Minister came under pressure to say whether her mind was already made up about the future of the combat wing.

"We hope to have some clarity by the end of this year as to whether we would continue with the Skyhawks or whether we would exit the capability," she replied, adding that she wanted "depth, not breadth" in the Defence Force's capabilities.

After her speech, she said she was "relatively neutral" about keeping the Skyhawks and that the defence review might not come to a firm conclusion.

But she added that there were powerful voices within the cabinet and the bureaucracy who were saying the Skyhawks took a disproportionate share of the defence budget and New Zealand would be better to "cash up" now.

The Skyhawks cost about $140 million a year to operate - around 10 per cent of the defence budget. Selling them could realise $60 million to $80 million.

In addition, the Aermacchi jet trainers could be "chopped right back or cut out."

Rapid disposal of the Skyhawks and the Aermacchis would make it fiscally difficult for a future National-Act coalition to rebuild a combat wing for the Air Force.

But National's defence spokesman, Wayne Mapp, said last night that his party would restore an air combat capability and would look for a new deal on replacement aircraft.

Within the Air Force, jet pilots remained hopeful they could persuade the Government to retain a combat force.

Wing Commander Herb Keightley, commander of 75 Squadron of Skyhawks at Ohakea, near Palmerston North, said: "It's our job, as the professionals in this field ... to provide the justification and the explanation in terms that everyone can understand about why we should have an air attack force."

He said the Air Force had been able to convince former Act MP Derek Quigley, who undertook a defence review for the Government, of the need for F-16s.

The cancellation of the contract and the threat to the attack force would weigh heavily on the minds of pilots and ground crew.