Declassified document shows extent of NZ's US-made military acquisitions
South Pacific nation joins others in the region spending billions of dollars of increasing military budgets on US weaponry.
New Zealand is currently spending over 60 percent of its defence budget on US military hardware, a document released under the Official Information Act confirms.
The news comes on the back of an announcement in August that it is spending $2.7 billion on a fleet of US-made MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and long-range Airbus A321XLR aircraft.
It follows a pattern across the Asia-Pacific region, as the US government seeks to maximise profits to its military-industrial complex after compelling global allies to drastically increase military budgets, in many cases at the expense of their social spending.
The procurements are part of a four-year $12 billion Defence Capability Plan announced on April 7 by Defence Minister Judith Collins. It amounts to a $9 billion hike, putting the country on track to raise defence spending from 1 percent to more than 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within the next eight years.
On April 17, just over a week after her announcement, Collins accompanied Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to a meeting in Auckland with a US Congressional Delegation on a visit to explore US military export opportunities with regional partners.
A briefing document for Collins and Peters entitled, Event Brief – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence Meeting with US Congressional Delegation, under a ‘Defence procurement’ section, states: “The United States Government is the largest supplier of military capability to New Zealand. By value, over 60 percent of the $6 billion currently under acquisition is being procured using US Foreign Military assets.”
The US delegation was led by Rep Young Kim, a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee. They visited several countries in the Pacific region, travelling to Palau after the engagement.
The document not only reveals how much of its new defence budget is currently being spent on US weaponry, but also how deeply enmeshed the country is becoming in US military schemes in the region.
One of the objectives of the ministers, it said, was to “highlight New Zealand’s value to the US as a close partner in the Indo-Pacific”.
It characterised its Defence Capability Plan as a means of making New Zealand a “force multiplier with Australia”, a country that has committed itself firmly to US military posture against China, particularly through the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact.
In announcing the procurement of five MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and the Airbus A321XLR last month, Collins emphasised that these would not only allow New Zealand’s military to respond to “international events” but would enhance interoperability within an “integrated Anzac force”.
She said it was important to have the extra long-range Airbus aircraft, as these were “capable of such things as returning safely from Antarctica if it is unable to land due to conditions on the ice”.
The declassified briefing document obtained shows one of the discussion points with the US delegation being “the strategic importance of Antarctica to New Zealand and the high value we place on our co-operation with the US”.
Other issues listed to discuss were “New Zealand’s increased commitments to security in the Indo-Pacific” as well as Five Eyes collaboration and “our excellent collaboration in critical sectors such as space and defence”.
New Zealand is involved in a US initiative to militarise space as part of Operation Olympic Defender. The Royal NZ Air Force’s new number 62 Squadron, based in Auckland, is implementing New Zealand Defence Force space operations alongside the US.
The country has also agreed to act as a regional node in the US defence industry.
The overall tone of the document presents a need to emphasise New Zealand’s usefulness as a security partner in the region.
Most significantly, in a section entitled ‘Pacific region’, which presumably sets out New Zealand’s commitments in the region, all eight bullet points are completely redacted for national security reasons. This points to the level of secrecy around the country’s role in the Pacific as a US partner.
Collins made her $12 billion defence spending announcement in April, less than a month after her attendance at the Munch Security Conference in February, where the main topic of discussion was a need for defence spending hikes.
New Zealand is not the only NATO partner in the region spending big on US weaponry as it signs up to new bilateral security agreements.
Japan’s ¥8.8 trillion (US$60 billion) defence budget request for the 2026 fiscal year includes several military systems from the US, including two Boeing KC-46A Pegasus tanker aircraft and 12 more Lockheed-Martin F-35 fighter jets. It has committed to raising its defence spending from 1.2 percent to 2 percent by 2027.
On August 21, Taiwan announced a massive 22 percent hike in its 2026 defence budget of T$949.5 billion (US$31.27 billion), bringing its military spending to 3.32 percent of GDP.
After pressure from the US, it agreed to upgrade its navy and buy more US-made fighter jets and missiles, although selling fifth-generation F-35s to the self-governing island may remain off the table over fears of Chinese spies obtaining its technology.
The Philippines is increasing its defence acquisitions, as it deepens its alliance with Washington by expanding US troops’ access to Philippine bases too. In a major provocation to China, in December last year it agreed to buy Lockheed Martin’s land-based Typhon missile launcher, with a range of 480km.
Although South Korea is increasingly coproducing arms with the US in the region, it continues to buy F-35s and its components, spending 2.8 percent of GDP on defence.
Australia has also committed hundreds of billions on US weaponry over the next decade, with an estimated $390 billion being spent on its troubled AUKUS nuclear submarine deal with the US alone.
The developing arms race in the Asia Pacific region mirrors the situation in Europe.
At a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in late June, member states committed to enormous defence spending hikes to 5 percent of their GDP, after pressure from US President Donald Trump.
The militarisation is beginning to impose serious social costs on Western taxpayers funding it.
Germany’s Chancellor stated last month that his country’s welfare state was ‘unsustainable’ in light of the need to rearm to face down supposed threats from Russia and China.
The United Kingdom and France were reported last week to be on the verge of needing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan as the respective nations’ economies continued to suffer. Many analysts point to their de facto dominion status under US hegemony and the consequences of their support for a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine as causes of decline.
The Europe Union (EU) last month agreed to buy hundreds of billions of US weaponry as part of a trade deal announced in July, according to US President Donald Trump - a figure questioned by some analysts sceptical of US industrial capacity to fulfil demand.
Ukraine’s de facto president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was reported to have offered Trump a $100 billion deal to buy US weaponry, paid for by a consortium of European countries, in return for a security guarantee after any peace deal with Russia.
Both the previous Labour government, as well as the current hard-right coalition, have repeatedly justified military spending increases by referring to “a deteriorating geopolitical environment”, a situation itself created by the United States attempting to maintain its primacy in the face of rising multipolarity.