Fate of troubled 757s to be revealed in defence capability plan

Tuesday, 18 June 2024

While PM Christopher Luxon jets off on a commercial plane, the majority of the delegation must wait a day for another flight

Defence Minister Judith Collins says the fate of the Air Force’s troubled Boeing 757s will be revealed in the Government’s forthcoming defence capability plan.

But when the new plan will be delivered appears to be uncertain.

Collins on Monday said the landmark defence document, which has been talked about since 2021 and will map out billions in defence spending for years to come, would be released in September.

However on Tuesday, appearing before Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee for a two-hour hearing, Collins said the plan would be released “September-October”.

Collins afterwards said she had seen a “very, very” draft version of the plan but she wanted to make sure “we’ve got everything covered”, and have it confirmed with the incoming defence secretary, Brook Barrington.

The defence minister also suggested the plan would be released only once she had secured defence funding from the 2025 Budget.

“I'm not going to be putting up a defence capability plan that doesn't have some dollars attached to it, so I've just got to work on it,” she said.

The defence force’s capability became the centre of public discussion again this week after a Air Force Boeing 757 carrying Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to Tokyo broke down in Port Moresby.

The 757 has been unreliable, breaking down in Papua New Guinea this week, en route to Japan.

The plane, having limped back to Auckland for overnight repairs, was now headed to Japan to collect Luxon and a trade delegation.

Collins said she was “very hopeful” the Government would “do the right thing” and replace the aircraft, which were used not only for transporting the prime minister, but troops and supplies to difficult places including Antarctica.

At the hearing, she referred to the two 32-year-old 757s as “classic cars”. However, the US President’s aircraft, Air Force One, is older, having entered service in 1990.

“Is it really? That's fantastic. I'm sure it's been replaced many times,” Collins said.

Chief of Defence Air Marshal Tony Davies said told the committee’s MPs the 757s had conducted 96 flights in the past three months, including to Antarctica, and of the minor technical issues only one problem required it to change its travel plans.

“However, notwithstanding, it’s unacceptable for New Zealand to have a fault such as it encountered yesterday,” he said.

Defence had hoped to operate the aircraft until 2028.

“We’re not saying that’s impossible, but the ratio of time they spend in maintenance, and the cost of actually maintaining them, are getting to the point we’re saying, ‘How much longer can we keep going with this?’.”