New Zealand's navy is quite manageable anyway - two frigates (combat force) and four OPVs (patrol force, 2 large, 2 small), plus three modern support ships (tanker Aotearoa, multi-purpose supply vessel Canterbury, survey Manawanui), that's it!
Decommissioning due to lack of personnel
HMNZS Te Mana (F 111), MEKO 200 frigate. Photo: Michael Nitz
Now the third of the OPVs has also been transferred to reserve status, as the New Zealanders are simply short of personnel. In addition to the unattractive salary for new recruits, the navy has lost a lot of personnel because they migrated to the civilian sector after the military coronavirus support mission. The navy only has one small Lake-class OPV (HMNZS Rotoiti, 350 tonnes) and two recently overhauled MEKO 200 frigates in active status, about whose operational capability little is known.
New Zealand, Exclusive Economic Zone. Graphic: wikipedia/HvdMaarel/CC BY-SA 4.0
Not a good signal for the South Pacific!
What is fatal, however, is that New Zealand is one of the countries in the world with the largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in terms of area. There are over 4 million square kilometres around the main islands alone - plus the areas around the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau further north - which together is roughly equivalent to the continental area of Australia. There is also the Antarctic region of the Ross Dependency. There is no coastguard or anything like that. A vacuum into which the aspiring Asians are happy to contribute first financially and then militarily!
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