Govt denies purchase of obsolete ship

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 28

Govt denies purchase of obsolete ship

PA Invercargil The Government has countered a suggestion that a ship it is buying is obsolete. The Minister of Defence, Mr Thomson, said that H.M.N.Z.S. Southland ranks with the most modern of the anti-submarine frigates in the Royal New Zealand Navy. Although launched in 1961, ..the ship underwent an extensive refit during 1975-78 when weapons systems and navigation and detection. equipment were: completely . updated,. Mr . Thomson told, the Invercargill Central Rotary? Clute, \ The Minister said, .that there had been “some ill- : informed . criticism of the ~ Requisition of this, ship on the ground that she ...is obsolete, ; that she .is too old to meet .New Zealand’s current maritime requirements.” Named the Dido, .while, in 1 service in the British. Navy,..

the Southland will be handed over to the Royal New Zealand navy at Portsmouth in July next year, and, after a minor refit, will sail to New Zealand early in 1984. “H.M.N.Z.S. Southland is able to perform a general purpose role, capable of engaging ships, aircraft and shore targets, in addition to its primary; role of ■ submarine detection ... and destruction,” Mr Thomson said. A ship’s age did not necessarily serve as “an impediment to her ability to effectively fulfil her designated role,” he said. British defence officials had recently told their New Zealand counterparts that the task force in the Falklands war had been “very effectively served by the anti-submarine frigates of the same vintage and class as’ the recently retired Taranaki and .the about-to-be retired Otago.