If you kiwis are so tightarsed about price for a fighter then why don't you get a batch of JAS 39s?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen
Points:
>Most important of all cheap pricetag
>Cheap to maintain
>Multirole
>Good performance
>Modern Avionics
>Needs only a single technician and five conscripts to rearm and perform basic maintenance
>Uses American AMRAAM/Sidewinder, Maverick A-G missile, Mk 82 and GBU-12 bombs so you can buy off us for munitions.
>They can throw in their indigenously built AShM missile for maritime protection too.
Maybe then you can get all of your fighter pilots back who went abroad after you mothballed the A4Ks.
We just don't need them, we're a nation of pacifists sadly. We have no realistic threat in the near future, we're buddy buddy with the Yanks and a member of the Commonwealth. Sure we could spend X amount instead of Y amount, but option Z is spending no money at all
>>30088416
>"we're buddy buddy with the Yanks and a member of the Commonwealth"
You could use that argument for us yet we are getting 12 new subs, better safe then sorry.
If your too hesitant to get F-16s then you may as well look at cheaper options.
>>30088454
i'd also suspect that the very fact aussie has quite a decent armed forces is the reason we won't get them as well. we just assume you'll either get attacked first or that you'll help us out.
>>30088474
Well you being stronger means that we are stronger too.
The only thing NZ should be spending money on is becoming the 7th state of aus
>>30088686
ignoring the bait because as I kiwi I completely support a union of our countries, between Kiwi agri/abori/horticulture and Aussie mineral resources, we'd more more than the sum of our parts
>>30088868
You poor kiwis will have to kiss your guns goodbye
>>30088893
I'm more thinking along the lines of confederation, as much as we like bending over here, I don't think anyone would support relinquishing that level of sovereignty
Its not about price. We were offered the f16s for $1USD each since they were mothballed anyway. We were practically gifted them but then Helen Clark pulled the plug because she thinks fighters are babykillers (that is literally what she said).
In the end we just cant afford to keep up with modern fighter fleet management and have shifted our focus to maritime patrol and eez protection, hence the increase in budget for the 2022/2025 purchases
>>30088893
Isle of Man is part of the UK yet they got to keep their guns...
>>30089229
>Helen Clark pulled the plug because she thinks fighters are babykillers
YOU.CAN'T.MAKE.THIS.SHIT.UP
I'm Malaysian. Lived in NZ for 5 years. Beautiful country, nice people and relatively safe. I noticed Kiwis can be fatalistic at times. They only have 4 million mostly old people. They know nothing they can do will prevent a determined invader, if they already managed to travel all the way to the ends of the world. So Kiwis do the realistic thing and focus on the policing of their EEZ while relying on Aussies for the rest. The Aussies I talked to, don't mind it, seeing that they had a shared ANZAC history despite the constant ribbing and rugby/cricket rivalry.
>>30089229
>turning down 1$ F-16 because they are "Baby Killers"
I have lost a little respect for New Zealand
>>30088269
They cannot afford them.
>>30090613
Get the fuck out of my country you shitskin foreigner.
