WELLINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) – New Zealand has begun discussions with Australia and Britain over replacing \u200cits ageing Anzac-class frigates, with advice on \u200ca preferred path expected to go to government by the end \u200bof 2027, Defence Minister Chris Penk said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The government is considering the Japanese Mogami-class frigate, which Australia has chosen, and Britain’s Type 31 frigate as \u200cpart of a business \u2060case for replacing HMNZS Te Kaha and HMNZS Te Mana, commissioned in 1997 \u2060and 1999, respectively. Working with partners would help ensure interoperability and potential efficiencies, Penk said in a \u200bstatement.<\/p>\n
The work \u200bis part of New \u200bZealand’s 2025 Defence Capability \u200cPlan, under which the government has committed to significantly lift defence spending and replace ageing equipment after what it has described as years of systemic underspend.<\/p>\n
The plan includes maritime fleet renewal as Wellington seeks \u200cto strengthen its ability to \u200bprotect sea lanes, support Pacific \u200bsecurity and respond to \u200bdisasters.<\/p>\n
Penk said most of the navy’s \u200cfleet would reach the end \u200bof its \u200bdesign life by the mid-2030s, including the two Anzac frigates, which provide New Zealand’s main maritime \u200bcombat capability.<\/p>\n
Replacement of \u200cthe frigates is listed as an indicative \u200binvestment for 2029-2039.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer in Wellington; \u200bEditing by Lincoln Feast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WELLINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) – New Zealand has begun discussions with Australia and Britain over replacing \u200cits ageing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13204,583,13,13203,8762],"class_list":{"0":"post-30395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-anzac-frigates","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-chris-penk","12":"tag-new-zealand"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116530352325742638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}