Hon Dr Wayne Mapp
Minister of Defence
14 April 2009

Navy’s new ships on the way

Delivery of the Navy’s new inshore patrol vessels has been arranged with contractor BAE Systems, says Defence Minister Wayne Mapp.

HMNZS Rotoiti, the first of the four new IPVs, is scheduled to be handed over on 16 April and commissioned on 17 April at Whangarei. It will sail to the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland on 24 April. The other three are expected to be delivered by the end of May.

“Delivery of the Project Protector ships has been the Government’s highest Defence priority since taking office,” Dr Mapp said.

“A lot of hard work has gone into getting the ships out of the yard and into service. When we came into government this project was in a mess which we are working hard to clean up. I thank Ministry and Defence Force officials for the efforts they have made to resolve the issues.

“The Navy will now have a new fleet of very capable and sophisticated ships. The IPVs are designed to carry out a variety of tasks for government agencies, including Police, Customs, the Ministry of Fisheries, the Department of Conservation, and Maritime New Zealand, and to have a secondary role in New Zealand disaster relief. These ships will give the Navy a much higher profile around our coastline.

“The IPVs will greatly enhance the Navy's ability to recruit and retain people, getting people to sea to do the jobs they are trained for - jobs that benefit the people of New Zealand.”

Once at Devonport, the ships will undergo a series of sea trials and crew training in order to become ready for operations.

Dr Mapp said that he and Defence Ministry officials were now working towards the delivery of the two offshore patrol vessels of the Protector fleet, currently located in Melbourne.

He said that there were a number of outstanding issues in respect of HMNZS Canterbury and the offshore patrol vessels which would now be referred to mediation as provided for in the contract. The mediation is intended to start on 25 May.

“Although we have begun a mediation process, we are still working hard to resolve the outstanding issues through negotiation with the contractor,” Dr Mapp said.

Dr Mapp said that it was pleasing that $135.4 million had been spent in New Zealand as part of the contract to build the Project Protector fleet. This is nearly 25% ahead of the contract requirement of $110 million. The four IPVs were completely built and fitted out in Whangarei.

ENDS

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