Hon Mark Burton
20 September 2002
Project Protector Registrations-of-Interest close
Twenty-one organisations from the worldwide ship building industry responded to the Invitation-to-Register-Interest for
the supply of new RNZN ships under the project title of Project Protector, the Minister of Defence, Mark Burton
announced today. “There are 14 countries represented in the 21 registrations”, Mr Burton said.
“The Ministry of Defence now has the task of reviewing the registrations, prior to shortlisting a smaller number of
suitably qualified organisations that will be invited to provide fully developed proposals.
“This is an important capability for the New Zealand Defence Forces and the civil agencies that will be able to access
that capability. With the ships being purchased for Project Protector, the Navy will be able to patrol more effectively
our EEZ, and to work more effectively with other agencies, such as Customs and Fisheries, in their task of protecting
our borders”, Mr Burton said.
Unlike other projects, the Protector Invitation-to-Register-Interest identified critical functions that need to be
performed by the Protector fleet and the budget constraints being applied to the project. Respondents were encouraged to
suggest the ship types that they could provide to meet the needs of New Zealand. This additional requirement applies an
additional level of complexity to the evaluation of the responses. Mr Burton confirmed the outcome of this stage is
expected to be complete before the end of the year.