The Government has started the process of buying long-range one-way strike drones for the New Zealand Defence Force, a purchase worth up to $300 million, in the same week that Cabinet papers showed much of the infrastructure used to train soldiers is still World War II era.
Defence Minister Chris Penk announced on 29 July that Defence would go to the market for the drones, and that local firms would be encouraged to bid. In a statement, Mr Penk said the Government would “soon place with industry a request for information and while we will consider all viable options, we are especially interested in supporting local innovation, skills and industrial capability”.
The drones being sought are not the autonomous killing machines the phrase tends to conjure. Defence describes them as human-operated, non-autonomous systems that carry an explosive to a target and do not come back, which makes them a far cheaper way to hit something than a missile. Ukraine and Russia have both made heavy use of the technology over the past four years, and its spread has forced small defence forces around the world to rethink what they can afford to do.
Mr Penk framed the purchase as part of a wider catch-up. “This Government is fixing the basics by addressing historical Defence underinvestment, and that includes modernising our capability,” he said. “We cannot have prosperity without security. As the international security environment becomes increasingly unpredictable, we must ensure the New Zealand Defence Force can operate effectively, including alongside our partners, to deter potential threats and protect New Zealand’s security.”
Defence also planned to begin market research last week on unarmed long-range uncrewed aircraft capable of maritime surveillance, the sort of aircraft that would watch fishing grounds and shipping lanes across New Zealand’s very large search and rescue area. Both projects were set out in the Defence Capability Plan and both have between $100 million and $300 million allocated to them. The final requirements will be settled through the acquisition process, so the amount actually spent is not yet fixed.
There is an economic argument attached. More than 80 percent of the Defence Force’s $2.6 billion operating budget is already spent inside New Zealand. “Defence is increasingly being viewed as a driver that can create skilled jobs, boost economic and regional growth, and through partnership strengthen innovation and high-value industry,” Mr Penk said, pointing to local businesses already working on drone and simulation technology. Stuff reported the request for information as the first concrete step toward a strike capability New Zealand has never previously held.
The awkward part arrived a day later. Cabinet papers from April and May, obtained and reported by RNZ, describe the buildings where soldiers actually learn their trade in blunt terms. “Much of the infrastructure required to train NZDF personnel, like classrooms or rifle ranges, is World War II era, and is increasingly ineffective, and creating a potential for unsafe training environments,” one paper says. Another notes that “poor infrastructure in failing condition makes it difficult to train and retain people”.
By May this year, 60 percent of the army’s land training system had reached the end of its working life. Land combat readiness had fallen to 45 percent by the end of 2025, and the papers attribute part of that decline to the condition of camps and facilities. Waiouru, the army’s main training camp, is the focus of work on a new recruit training system, and Linton near Palmerston North is getting a virtual training facility.
Budget 2026 put $23 million toward the problem. That money covers a design phase running to 2029-30, which means the first serious repairs are at least three years away. One upgraded rifle range is confirmed. Two other short-term measures were redacted from the released documents. Mr Penk told RNZ the Government had “begun the process” of ensuring training could be delivered “safely, effectively and at the scale required”.
Labour’s defence spokesperson Damien O’Connor put the emphasis elsewhere. “Personnel is the most acute issue facing NZDF. Labour sees this as a priority,” he said.
That is the real tension in this week’s announcements, and it is not a partisan one. Both sides accept the Defence Force was starved of money for two decades. The Government has since committed roughly $9 billion in extra spending over four years from 2025, which is a genuine reversal. The question is one of sequencing. Kit can be ordered quickly. Buildings, ranges and the instructors who use them take longer, and a strike drone is only useful if there are trained people to operate it and a force healthy enough to keep them.
The Defence Force has struggled to hold on to staff since the pandemic, and the Cabinet papers make the connection explicit, that people leave partly because the places they work in are falling apart. Buying drones does nothing about that. Fixing Waiouru might, but not before 2029.
Defence rarely decides an election, and with the general election set for 7 November it is unlikely to feature heavily in the campaign. It does, however, sit inside a bigger argument about what the Government has chosen to spend on and what it has left waiting. If you want to see where the parties actually stand on that spending, our voting tool lets you compare their positions before you vote.
What do you think? Should the Defence Force be buying new weapons before it fixes the camps where soldiers are trained, or does the security situation mean it cannot wait? Leave a comment below and let us know.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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