NZ Defence Force can’t service Poseidon planes, sends them to Australia instead

New Zealand is unable to do major servicing of its new maritime patrol and submarine-hunting planes so is sending the work to Australia.

Australia is building up its sovereign defence industry capabilities that have been run down over the years.

But the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) knew when it spent $2.3 billion on its four Poseidon’s – a match for Australia’s dozen – that servicing their high-tech complexity was beyond it.
“New Zealand does not have – and has never had – the organic capability to conduct depot-level maintenance on the P-8A,” Defence told RNZ on Thursday.

It also did not help when Poseidon routine maintenance staff numbers fell to half what was needed, in late 2023.

The gulf in servicing capability is likely to grow as AI algorithms for hunting subs, along with extra torpedoes, are added to Poseidon’s flown by New Zealand’s main partners.

However, Defence said sharing a fixit depot with Australia was a bonus of buying the same plane as them, and of the two forces’ very close ties.