'Welcome to ranks of Third World'

New Zealand will join the ranks of the Third World if it ends up without a jet fighter force.

In the developed world, only Ireland has no combat aircraft - and it is trying to obtain them. Those with no fighters include some nations of central America and some of the smaller Pacific islands to our east.

Dr David Dickens, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies, said last night: "If we went away from fast jets and their capabilities, then our defence force would resemble a Third World-state defence force ... We'd become sort of like a central American state."

The Navy and Army relied heavily on the Air Force, and axing jet fighters would handicap both, especially when it came to special forces operations.

"The political cost of losing our airstrike capability would be that we'd lose our independence. We would always be beholden to some other state."