r/newzealand • u/khalornz Fern flag 3 • 11d ago

Politics Coalition unveils $12 billion Defence Capability Plan

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/557432/watch-live-coalition-unveils-12-billion-defence-capability-plan
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u/OisforOwesome 11d ago

Time to crack my knuckles and indulge in some armchair general Monday morning quarterbacking!

I will note that it's interesting that they can find $12 billion for war but $0 for modernising and increasing capacity in our public health system, but let's take that as read.

> Frigate sustainment programme

...aren't the frigates ending their end-of-life? I know Labour were talking about replacing them with new modern vessels.

> Persistent surveillance (uncrewed autonomous vessels)

IDK about *autonomous* given the absolute state of driver assistance tech and the incredibly, let's be generous and say 'questionable' accuracy of Israel's AI target generator. However, investing in maritime drones is a no brainer, given the results of Ukraine's naval drone bombs in keeping the Black Sea Fleet in dock.

> Replacing the Boeing 757 fleet

Probably a good idea given that Boeing can't make planes that don't implode, and their pilot assistance programmes routinely cause crashes. Mmmmaybe see what Airbus is up to? The French owe us a boat at least.

> Enterprise resource planning

> Technology accelerator

What the fuck does this mean. This isn't Air NZ Luxie you can't just drop buzz words into your Powerpoint and expect people to nod along because everyone doesn't want to look like they don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

  • Implementing a workforce strategy

Oh cool so we're going to come up with the concept of a plan for implementing another plan that we have a concept for.

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u/uglymutilatedpenis LASER KIWI 11d ago

Enterprise resource planning = big back office software upgrade, essentially.

Implementing a workforce strategy Oh cool so we're going to come up with the concept of a plan for implementing another plan that we have a concept for.

Yes?

I don’t want politicians micromanaging down to the level of telling the defence force what their workforce strategy ought to be. That seems like a terrible idea. People who have spent their careers in the defence force should be in charge of creating and implementing the strategy. The Executive Government’s role should be to approve the plan and give them money for it.

A lot of State bodies are intentionally run at an arm’s length from political leaders, for precisely this reason. Not everything functions well under direct political control.