Navy To Receive New Frigate In 4 Years

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31520, 7 November 1967, Page 1

Navy To Receive New Frigate In 4 Years

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 6. The Royal New Zealand Navy will receive a new frigate in about four years, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) announced today.

The $l9-million ship would be completed towards the end of 1971 to replace the Blackpool, now on loan from the Royal Navy, Mr Holyoake said.

The ship is to be built in Britain. Tenders will be called soon and the contract will be placed early in 1968.

Under a credit arrangement with Britain’s Export Credit Guarantee Department, New Zealand will have 11 years in which to pay for the new frigate, instead of the normal five-year period. The estimated $l9 million cost will include a helicopter, stores and spares.

The ship will be similar to the Leander class frigate Waikato, one of the world’s most modern anti-submarine frigates, which was commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy last year.

Although it is of the same class as the Waikato, improvements will be incorporated into the new frigate’s design to make it as modern in its day as the Waikato is today. “The Cabinet’s decision to order a new frigate is a further step in implementing the 1966 Defence White Paper and proof of the Government’s intention that this White Paper should continue to be the blueprint for our defence planning,” Mr Holyoake said. “It is also the conclusion of an arrangement with the United Kingdom whereby the Blackpool was lent to New Zealand in anticipation of an order for an additional frigate, and to provide New

Zealand with an operational frigate while the new ship was being built.” The credit arrangements call for 10 per cent of the cost to be paid when the order is placed, 20 per eent when construction is finished and the balance of 70 per cent over seven years from when the frigate is delivered.