‘N.Z. should lease its warships’

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 29

‘N.Z. should lease its warships’

PA Auckland If the Navy wants to remain a credible A.N.Z.U.S. force it should lease modern warships if it cannot afford to buy them, according to a former senior frigate commander and naval planner, Mr lan Bradley. Attacking the Navy’s decision to buy two old Royal Navy Leander class frigates, Mr ‘Bradley said that the Navy had become obsessed with a ship it could not afford — the $227 million Dutch Kortenaer class frigate.

Nothing else would fit the bill for the Navy, he said. As a result, the politicians had decided to make the choice for them. “Who can blame them?

“We are now awaiting the delivery of two used, indeed well-used, frigates like the ones we already have.” The Navy had lost the initiative because it had not left itself a position to fall back into — it was “all or nothing” for the Kortenaer class frigates. Mr Bradley resigned from

the Navy a year ago after a disagreement. . He made his remarks at a Social Credit election meeting, where he emphasised that he was not a Social Credit supporter. He said a ship that would have been compatible with the A.N.Z.U.S. navies would have been the “FFG7” (Perry class) frigate, which was built in the United States and was in service with the United States Navy and the Australian Navy. “It is a slightly less sophisticated ship than the Dutch frigate our Admiral said we had to have, but it is a useful ship nevertheless. “We cannot afford to buy one — indeed I doubt if we will ever buy new again — so why not take the next alternative — lease it?

“The Navy’s planners, and I was one, have a pretty poor reecord over the past few decades: We bought the wrong patrol craft, we tried to get a new survey ship and got told to refit a banana boat — very successfully. I might add — but Mr Muldoon takes the dredit.

“Now we are stuck with four obsolescent frigates —. mutton dressed up as lamb,” said Mr Bradley. "The junior partner in A.N.Z.U.S. cannot keep turning up in ships for which neither of our allies carry parts or ammunition.”