Prime Minister Christoper Luxon in Australia: Says he will ‘explore’ joining Pillar 2 of Aukus
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says New Zealand will do its share of the heavy lifting in security and defence in its alliance with Australia – and will also explore joining Pillar 2 of security pact Aukus.
The speed with which Winston Peters and National are driving NZ into the arms of the American Military Industrial Complex for their next military adventure profit margin is deeply alarming.
TDB has been critical and vocal about the NZ media’s slavish love affair with Rocket Labs when no one wants to admit they are little more than a franchisee of the American Military Industrial Complex.
Rocket Labs has made us a legitimate military target to China or Russia and NO ONE is allowed to ever point that out…
US wants NZ to stump up cash for $1.6b military satellite project
The weapons race in space is heating up – and the bills are shooting up too.
New Zealand is in a group of allies the US has asked to stump up more money for military satellites.
What does that mean for a cash-strapped Defence Force that cannot even afford to float all its boats?
A multi-billion-dollar space race pitting the US against China and Russia is gathering pace for satellite communications, jamming, tracking and surveillance to help troops on the battlefield, subs and ships, and even nuclear forces.
Hypersonic missile development – the US alone has 70 hypersonic test programmes – is only fuelling the push for more advanced satellite warning systems.
New Zealand is linked in politically as a partner in the US Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) programme, and commercially through Rocket Lab’s multiplying contracts with the Pentagon and major military contractors such as Lockheed Martin.
…Rocket Lab fires rockets into space for the secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) this is their charming patch…
…nothing erodes faith in the check and balance of extreme power quite like a giant orange space octopus proclaiming that nothing is out of its reach. Unbeknownst to most NZers, Rocket Lab is a Military Industrial Complex franchise, not some plucky Number 8 Wire Dad Shed schlock that Rocket Lab like to project to the sleepy hobbits of Muddle Nu Zilind…
Rocket Lab’s link with the CIA’s venture capital firm was revealed in 2016 by US investigative journalism site The Intercept, but has not been reported by the New Zealand media.
Put aside the zero public debate of whether or not we should get this close to the American Military Industrial Complex in the first place and note that no one ever explained to the NZ public how allowing Rocket Labs to launch US military satellites immediately upgrades NZ to being a legitimate military target!
Because of this, Chinese Subs and Russian Subs will legitimately sit off the East Coast of NZ targeting the launch site.
THIS is why we needed to buy 4 P-8s! Because America is able to launch military satellites from NZ, which makes us a target and we need to defend that target with sub hunting planes!
New sub-killer planes may never fire in anger but Govt wants the option
Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced the Government will buy four Boeing P-8A Poseidons to replace the defence force’s ageing fleet of P-3K Orions. The purchase has been a longtime coming.
The P-8s, known as submarine killers, mark a new era in defence procurement, with one expert calling this the most significant defence purchase in a generation.
…so under National, we signed up to a military space programme through our 5 Eyes network that has now made us a legitimate military target which we need to buy sub hunting planes and torpedoes for???
When will it be made clear to the rest of the electorate that we have done this and put everyones lives at risk by Rocket Lab making us a legitimate military target?
The funniest thing about this is the Ministerial fig leaf used to hide our militarisation of space…
Additionally, every Rocket Lab payload must now be signed off by the New Zealand Space Agency (housed within) MBIE, plus the Space Minister (currently Stuart Nash), after meeting safety criteria and passing a “national interest” test.
…according to the secret 5 Eyes space deal we signed before Labour won the 2017 election, we can use a ‘national interest’ test to justify any militarisation of space America thinks we need to have.
This new hard right racist Government want to slavishly worship at the American Military Industrial Complex’s lap and get sucked into the vortex of THEIR interests not OURS.
Working to build capacity to help AUKUS is stupid! Why do we want to have anything to do with nuclear weapons?
If we are serious about an Independent Foreign Policy, we have to accept Neutrality is going to cost us a lot more.
The Māori Party suggestion of neutrality is worth considering.
I believe that the climate crisis means we need a vastly larger military to cope with civil disasters and if we are attempting to distance ourselves from China and America, we need to make a decision to dramatically lift what we spend on the military for purely defensive and civil disaster capacity.
How would we go about defending the realm of NZ and all our economic exclusive zone?
We can’t pull away from America and China and pretend there is no cost to being Independent.
We need to increase Military GDP spending to 5%.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice going into this pandemic and 2020 election – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.
You gotta worry at the prospect of New Zealand having the capability to blow up nuclear powered submarines in our marine environment. What idiots. Who could possibly win from this?
Certainly not us.
Rather than hopping on this spiral of escalation and counter escalation, we would be better to get off it altogether, and become the Switzerland of the South Seas, under a neutral flag while the superpowers and their allies are busy trying to destroy each other.
While I agree entirely with your first point, being neutral requires more than just becoming neutral. You need to be independent and that means you need the ability to defend yourself. Nazi Germany was intending to invade the neutral Switzerland in WWII. But Switzerland places high value on defence systems and training of its entire populace, and would never be an easy target. In addition they are more or less united and prepared to fight for their country. Independence and neutrality are a way of being, not just a whim.
I can’t see NZ attaining any ability to be independent even with 5% of GDP being spent on defence. We would need every able bodied adult to be prepared to fight and unified in purpose.
No chance of that happening.
Are you trying to fight a continental land war. You understand that New Zealand is an island nation 2000km from its nearest land mass. Just because you can not imagine an independent military force doesn’t mean New Zealand couldn’t have one fit into a 5% budget. It’s the distance. The reasons Nazi Uboats had so much success naval blockading Britian in WW2 was because they had no sub hunting capability vs 700 uboats. You can’t sneak a blockade in under or across the waves with modern satellites a meagre force of 6 frigates and a handful of sub hunting war planes and fighter jets would smash them right in the face. Then we send in Manawanui for clean up under fighter jet cover. It’s not hard you just can’t be a pussy.
The young have no skin in the game, the old wont let us get a bloody house. Fight for yourselves boomers. We got nothing to lose.
We don’t have 5% of GDP to waste on military. We should get rid of all other military and combine Coastguard and Navy with a flert of high speed gunboats to look after our coast.
Planes and a few sonar stations could cover our whole exclusive economic zone. We only need boats for rescues and boardings.
Have you ever gone for a swim in the Southern Ocean during winter?
“We don’t have 5% of GDP to waste on military. ”
Who knows? Perhaps not. But we can waste 99% of our agrarian earned GDP on multi-billionaires, multi-millionaires and launder other multiples of billions through four foreign owned banks and all enabled by crooked politicians with privateer hands down their undies.
Well said CB although I can see the last part of your comment being a massive turn on for Bob the first idiot.
Did you ever wonder why NZ is so poor when agriculture is supporting us all from your descriptions?
Did you know that the answer is that agriculture is not as productive as manufacturing or digging stuff out of the ground? While agriculture is a big part of our exports we also have tourism, technology & manufacturing that all contribute significant amounts & the more we can earn from high-value exports the better off we will be.
Farmers have had over a hundred years to control the value chain of what they produce to keep the various freeloaders from profiting from their produce but they are unable to work together even when it will be in their best interests long term to do so.
Much better to flog NZ to PRC colonists…
NZs Independent Foreign Policy?
I didn’t realize we had one! Or is the policy just being inept and supine at every possible occasion.
To be an enemy of America can be dangerous to be an ally is fatal
Henry Kissinger