I have been concerned, since the mothballing of the Skyhawks, that the RNZAF is now incorrectly named. The word 'Force” implies a willingness to impose ones will over another. Fortunately we have a Police Force, rather than Police stand-aside-and-do-nothing.
But we no longer have an Air Force because any idiot could jump in a Cessna in Auckland, announce to the world that they were going to crash into the Beehive in 911 fashion, and the only thing we could do is sell tickets to the event...we certainly couldn't stop them. Tempting though it is I would hesitate to use the name Air Farce, simply to keep the letters. Our service men and women deserve our respect.
Naming aside, the scrapping our our air capability was always a short sighted move.
It was made in the belief that we would never be a target of military action and I don't think there is a crystal ball good enough to make that prediction with any confidence. By disarming our Air Force we sent a message to the world that we were unwilling to defend ourself and placing all our faith in allies who, history shows, can be fickle.
We have an abundance of arable land and clean water and the world economic picture could rapidly change to the point where 'lebensraum” becomes tempting for any crowded Asian country with the inclination to colonise. Worse still, we currently have Brazilians searching for oil off East Cape.
I kind of hope that they don't find any as there is a certain very large country to our east that seems to think all the oil in the world belongs to them and it just got left under other countries by mistake. I would hate to have some drunken party be mistaken for a civil uprising that necessitates unilateral international intervention!
Steve Gore, Pyes Pa.