New Zealand to spend $1.6 bn on aircraft in defence budget doubling plan

New Zealand's government announced new military spending Thursday of 2.7 billion New Zealand dollars ($1.6 billion) to replace aging aircraft, with senior officials who unveiled the package citing rapidly growing global tensions and a deteriorating security environment.

The purchase of military planes and helicopters was the first procurement announced in a government plan, disclosed April, to double defence spending from 1 per cent to 2 per cent of GDP in the next decade.

New Zealand's military spending has trailed that of its larger partners in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group of countries which includes the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia and the bolstered budget reflects a shift in how the remote island nation is responding to strategic competition between major powers in the Pacific Ocean.

The procurement includes five MH-60R Seahawk helicopters to replace the existing maritime fleet and two Airbus A321XLR aircraft, allowing the retirement of Boeing 757s that are more than 30 years old and were already secondhand when purchased.

The helicopters accounted for more than NZ $2 billion of the spending, officials said.

Defence Minister Judith Collins said her government would move at pace to procure the helicopters directly through the United States' foreign military sales programme instead of going to a wider tender.

Cabinet ministers were expected to consider the final business case in 2026, she told reporters in Wellington on Thursday.

It would take a few years to acquire the helicopters, Collins added, because buying new meant New Zealand would need to wait in line.

She denied the choice to buy from the United States was an attempt to rectify the trade imbalance that has seen New Zealand goods targeted for an adjusted 15 per cent levy when arriving in the US under the Trump administration's global tariffs plan.

The aging Boeing aircraft have frequently broken down while transporting New Zealand prime ministers abroad in recent years and now can only be flown short distances.

The episodes are among an awkward string of incidents that have highlighted the rundown state of the country's military hardware and persistent difficulties in maintaining it due to recruitment shortfalls.