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John Currin

15 years in Royal New Zealand Navy

NZDF teams up with Warriors Anzac Day League fixture

A full-capacity Go Media Stadium is set to host the largest contingent of New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel commemorating Anzac Day anywhere in the world.

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23 APRIL, 2024

The NZDF and One New Zealand Warriors have combined forces on an unprecedented scale for the Warriors’ 2024 Anzac Day encounter with the Gold Coast Titans on Thursday.

Rugby league fans will be treated to ceremonial pomp and pageantry, the sight of military hardware on the ground and in the air, and an appearance from some canine personnel.

This is only the second time the New Zealand side has hosted the Anzac Day fixture, nine years on from the first occasion which marked the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Gallipoli campaign in 2015.

“It’s a special honour for us to host the Anzac Day game again,” said One New Zealand Warriors CEO Cameron George.

“From our viewpoint, it’s appropriate that the NRL should commemorate such an important day for our two nations.”

The association between Anzac Day and New Zealand and Australia’s major sporting codes runs deep, and in particular for the One New Zealand Warriors.

“We’re extremely grateful to the New Zealand Defence Force for lending such valuable support to ensure we are able to mark the day in a dignified and respectful way,” Cameron George said.

From having the New Zealand Army Band leading proceedings on the field, with vocalists, a bugler, and a Royal New Zealand Navy guard of honour taking on the ceremonial duties, more than 150 serving personnel will be front and centre on one of the country’s largest sporting stages in front of a sold out crowd.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force A109 helicopter will deliver the match ball in spectacular fashion, touching down on the halfway line before the match.

The Australian Defence Force will also be represented with a flagbearer on the field.

“The commemoration of Anzac Day is one of the most important national occasions on both sides of the Tasman,” said Lieutenant Colonel Tony Sumner, Director of Defence Public Affairs.

“While Anzac had its origins on the beaches and hills of the Gallipoli Peninsula over a century ago, this day continues to symbolise the very close bonds we have with our Australian friends.

“To be able to commemorate those who have served, fought and fallen on such a large sporting stage is a particular honour.”

Some of the NZDF’s frontline capabilities will be on display at Go Media Stadium, with Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) and the Army’s new armoured Bushmasters available for fans to look through, and meet the soldiers who operate them.

Supporters will also get the chance to see the NZDF’s military working dogs showcase their incredible skills during a halftime display.

The One New Zealand Warriors will also wear a special commemorative jersey to mark the occasion, made up of several key design elements honouring the servicemen and servicewomen who have fought for New Zealand and Australia. 

Fans are encouraged to turn up to Go Media Stadium early on Thursday for a special Anzac-themed curtain-raiser, when the NZDF’s women’s rugby league team takes on their New Zealand Police counterpart.

Across the Tasman, the NZDF men’s team will also warm up the crowd at Accor Stadium in Sydney, by taking on the Australian Defence Force’s rugby league team in a hotly contested fixture, before the annual Anzac Day clash between the Sydney Roosters and the St George Illawarra Dragons.

Navy Bandsman explores Gallipoli history through musical predecessor

Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) Band member Petty Officer Fraser Robertson has returned to Gallipoli to play his part at Anzac Day commemorations for a third time.

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23 APRIL, 2024

A tuba player from Te Awamutu, Petty Officer Roberston played at the commemorations in Türkiye in 2014 and 2017 and was chosen again for this year’s event.

During the pre-deployment briefing, New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent historian Dr Andrew Macdonald noted there were plenty of serving brass-band musicians who landed at Gallipoli in 1915.

Sometimes they were members of regimental bands, but other times they were serving as soldiers in the front lines according to Dr Macdonald, a specialist military historian who holds an honorary captaincy with the RNZN.

“That kind of resonated for me after being to Gallipoli twice,” Petty Officer Robertson said.

While he was aware musicians had waded ashore at Anzac Cove he said he hadn’t know that some instruments had also been carried onto the peninsula.

Other research by author and editor Chris Bourke showed that while band music was almost absent from the historical record of Gallipoli, it was nonetheless heard by New Zealand troops serving there.

His research showed enough bandsmen landed on Gallipoli to form four bands.

In particular, Petty Officer Robertson was interested in the life of Private William Griffiths, who also played the tuba.

Private Griffiths was a stretcher bearer in the Auckland Battalion. During the August offensive to open the approach to Chunuk Bair, he suffered a gunshot wound to the head and later died at a hospital in Egypt.

Private Griffiths was born and raised in Timaru, but was based in Auckland at the time of his enlistment into the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. For many years this young man – known to family and friends as Sandy – was a bandsman in the Auckland City Corps of the Salvation Army.

“It’s quite intriguing,” Petty Officer Robertson said.

“Brass bands have played a significant part in my family and life. I am a third-generation member of the Te Awamutu Brass Band, and my family is still heavily involved with the local band.”

Most of the 40-strong NZDF contingent arrived in Türkiye about a week before the 25 April anniversary to acclimatise and rehearse before the ceremonies.

Battlefield tours were part of the programme so the members could learn more about their predecessors and the battles that were fiercely fought at Gallipoli, and where, in some places, both sides’ trenches were as little as  five metres apart.

“The landscape still amazes me. You see how far away the Turkish soldiers would have been from the New Zealanders to the point where they could have easily had a conversation,” Petty Officer Roberston said.

As well as conversations, Turkish soldiers would have heard music being played by the New Zealand troops – an aspect of the campaign which is not well known.

According to New Zealand music website Audioculture, while musicians and music were not common during the campaign, they did feature.

Small musical gatherings were sometimes held relatively close to the Turkish lines.

For safety reasons, the Canterbury Battalion’s musicians played their first concert in the dark in Canterbury Gully – also known as Rest Gully. The following evening, the Turks brought their own band to the trenches. Both events were eventually drowned out by rifle and artillery fire.

The commander of the Wellington Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel William Malone, also documented that musical gatherings took place. He wrote that the musicians – whom he thought would not perform well in war – had proved their bravery as stretcher bearers.

During the NZDF contingent’s recent battlefield tour, Dr Macdonald outlined the importance of song at Gallipoli, explaining how veterans he had interviewed talked about occasional sing-alongs among small groups of soldiers when away from the front line at places such as Rest Gully, the Maori Pah and Plugge’s Plateau, among others.

“Based on what these elderly men – men who had served at these places inside the Anzac perimeter – told me, song was a form of distraction from what they had been through, as well as a form of camaraderie. It was also a means of relaxation.”

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Howard (DDG 83) transits the South China Sea, April 20, 2024. Howard, part of Carrier Strike Group Nine, is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations

SOUTH CHINA SEA (April 20, 2024) . U.S. 7th Fleet is the Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adina Phebus)

As Turkish ship heads to Japan, industry eyes Eastern exports

Turkey’s Ada-class corvette TCG Kinaliada set sail April 8 for a nearly five-month deployment to Japan and other nearby countries. (Cem Devrim Yaylali/Staff)

By Cem Devrim Yaylali

ISTANBUL — A Turkish military vessel set sail April 8 for a nearly five-month deployment to Japan and other nearby countries.

The navy deployed its Ada-class corvette TCG Kinaliada to both celebrate the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Japan, as well as commemorate the 134th anniversary of the sinking of the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul during a typhoon following its visit to Japan.

But there’s a deeper message behind the ship’s eastward trip, experts told Defense News, one that could see Turkey’s defense industry gain a greater foothold in Asia.

The Asia Anew Initiative, which Turkey launched in 2019, essentially drives the country’s relationships with others in the region, according to Diren Doğan, a lecturer at Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University in Turkey.

“With this initiative, Turkey defines itself not as a ‘foreign country’ that noticed the rise of Asia and started to attach importance to the continent, but as a country with an Asian identity at every stage of history. And in addition to struggling with the challenges that the continent has brought throughout history, in parallel with the changing conjuncture, it also benefits from the advantages it has produced,” Doğan told Defense News.

Some of the nations Kinaliada is scheduled to visit are users of Turkish defense products. On its way to Japan, the ship and its crew have already stopped in Saudi Arabia and Djibouti, with plans to also visit Somalia, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China and South Korea.

As it returns home, the vessel is to stop in the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, India, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Djibouti and Jordan.

Such port visits by military ships are used to improve diplomatic and geopolitical relations. An exhibition of Turkish defense wares, involving company representatives, took place during the crew’s stop in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.

Doğan noted that despite displays of military equipment, the Asia Anew Initiative does not call for Turkey to choose a side “as great power competition escalates.” And that in itself makes Turkey’s weaponry attractive, she added.

“This initiative is considered a comfortable area because it puts mutual benefit above the countries’ personal ambitions, and avoids touching their political sensitivities. This created comfort zone increases preferability, even in a sensitive sector such as the defense industry,” Doğan said.

The Turkish ship TCG Kinaliada stopped in the port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on its way to Japan in April 2024. (Turkish Defense Ministry)

According to statistics shared by the Defence and Aerospace Industry Exporters’ Association, one of Turkey’s industry umbrella organizations, the nation’s total exports in 2023 were worth $255.8 billion, of which $5.5 billion came from the defense and aerospace sector.

None of the countries that TCG Kinaliada is visiting during its deployment are mentioned in the association’s top 10 list of export customers. But sales to Asian nations — with the exception of those in the Commonwealth of Independent States — made up 16% of Turkey’s defense and aerospace exports, or nearly $1 billion.

“As the Southeast Asian countries move away from their former suppliers, such as Russia and China, and seek to modernize their militaries, they will look for cost-effective suppliers that would not hinder their autonomy. Turkish companies, especially in uncrewed systems, could have significant advantages in the region,” said Çağlar Kurç, an assistant professor at Abdullah Gül University in Turkey, who has written about the local defense industry’s international ambitions.

“Turkish companies have an advantage in price and capacity when selling to Asian countries,” he told Defense News. “Turkish arms are high quality and cheap, compared to U.S. systems. Turkey does not use its arms trade relations as leverage; thus, it is a dependable and credible supplier.”

Turkish defense contractor FNSS has been active in Indonesia and Malaysia since early 2000. For the former, it developed a prototype medium tank that the firm eventually evolved into the Kaplan MT, jointly produced by Indonesian company PT Pindad. In Malaysia, FNSS has provided the ACV-300 Adnan armored infantry fighting vehicle.

Naval engineering specialist STM, also a Turkish defense company, signed a contract in 2013 to build a support tanker for Pakistan’s naval force. Delivery took place in 2018, the same year Turkey’s ASFAT inked a deal to manufacture a modified Milgem-class corvette for the same nation.

In 2021, Turkey sold six T129 Atak combat helicopters to the Philippines for $629 million.

And this year, the Maldives announced it chose the TB2 combat drone from Bayraktar to patrol the island nation’s exclusive economic zone. The unmanned aerial system gained prominence from its use by Ukraine in the war against Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

Indonesia announced in January plans to buy 45 Atmaca anti-ship missiles from Turkey. The TCG Kinaliada is armed with the weapon, which means defense officials in the host countries may have an opportunity to see the missile in person.

And in March, Malaysia unveiled plans to acquire Ada-class corvettes for its Littoral Mission Ship Batch 2 program. For its part, the TCG Kinaliada is the fourth ship of the Ada class — the first type of combat naval platform designed and constructed in Turkey.

But if Turkey wants to gain a greater Eastern foothold, Kurç said, it should consider engaging with South Korea, which has emerged as a leader in regional defense exports.

Still, it’s very much a balancing act for the potential customers, Doğan noted.

“While the countries in the region are economically fed by China, they are trying to fend off the security-oriented challenges brought by Chinese aggression with the security umbrella of the USA,” she said. While implementing all these strategies, they must try not to get too close to the USA and infuriate the dragon [China], while they also have to be careful not to get too carried away by the added value that China brings to their economy and go out of the protective atmosphere of the USA.”

“Turkey stands out as a preferred middle ground for countries to diversify their hands in this harrowing process,” she added.

About Cem Devrim Yaylali

Cem Devrim Yaylali is a Turkey correspondent for Defense News. He is a keen photographer of military ships and has a passion for writing about naval and defense issues. He was born in Paris, France, and resides in Istanbul, Turkey. He is married with one son.

Lack of Free San Diego Dry Docks Complicates USS Boxer Repair

SAM LAGRONE APRIL 19, 2024 6:27 PM

The two dry docks large enough to accommodate a big deck amphibious warship in San Diego, Calif., are currently occupied, complicating the repairs of USS Boxer (LHD-4), USNI News has learned.

Boxer came back into port last week with one of its rudders damaged after leaving earlier this month on deployment. As of Friday, the Navy was assessing how to repair the rudder to allow the 45,000-ton capital ship to return to sea, a service official told USNI News. The service would prefer to fix the rudder underwater with the understanding that the replacement repair could take up to two to three weeks, USNI News previously reported.

Complications could arise if the big deck needs to go into dry dock. The dry dock large enough to accommodate Boxer at BAE Systems’ San Diego repair yard is occupied by an availability for Littoral Combat Ship USS Oakland (LCS-24). The nearby General Dynamics NASSCO dry dock is occupied by guided-missile destroyer USS Chung Hoon (DDG-93), which is undergoing an availability to install the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program Block 3. Moving either of the warships would extend both availabilities, USNI News understands.

The Navy is considering using a dry dock in Portland, Ore., at a shipyard owned by Vigor Industrial, but the service would have to remove ten feet of the Boxer’s mast so the big deck could travel under a bridge on the Willamette River to reach the yard, two sources familiar with Navy deliberations told USNI News.

As of now, Boxer is at the pier at Naval Base San Diego.

Boxer returned to San Diego on April 11 after leaving on a delayed Amphibious Ready Group deployment with the embarked 15th Marine Expeditionary Group.

Boxer is the flagship of the three-ship Boxer ARG, which also includes USS Somerset (LPD-25) and USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49). The deployment is the first for the Marine’s new Amphibious Combat Vehicles.

The deployment of the Boxer ARG and the 15th MEU has been split due to the big deck’s maintenance woes. Somerset left San Diego in January on its own with elements of the 15th MEU aboard. Harpers Ferry departed San Diego on March 19.

Having Boxer sidelined has forced the Navy and Marine Corps to retool several planned engagements in the Western Pacific, including Cobra Gold off Thailand earlier this year and the bilateral Balikatan exercise with the Philippines. Boxer was supposed to be a key asset in the drills with Manila that are billed as the largest in 30 years. This year’s exercises follow increasingly aggressive moves from China against Armed Forces of the Philippines’ resupply mission to the AFP’s base on Second Thomas Shoal, USNI News previously reported.

Typhoon Display Team shows off new 80th anniversary D-Day-themed makeover

22nd April 2024 at 4:25pm

2024 marks the 80th anniversary anniversary of the Normandy Landings (Picture: RAF Typhoon Display Team

The RAF Typhoon Display Team has shown off its new livery for the season – an 80th anniversary D-Day tribute scheme – complete with invasion stripes.

The aircraft has been painted in the RAF’s mid- to late-war European theatre colours of dark green and ocean grey over medium sea grey – the same as the Hawker Typhoons of the era.

The team at RAF Coningsby even painted black and white invasion stripes over the rear fuselage and wings – which were used to avoid friendly fire over the beaches of Normandy in June 1944 and beyond.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings during the Second World War.

The RAF Typhoon Display Team said on social media: “Please allow us to introduce, ZJ913, now known as Moggy.

“ZJ913 now adorned with a D-Day inspired livery, originally worn by Hawker Typhoon. Sporting the letters FM-G. FM was the lettering of 257 Sqn RAF, and the last aircraft wearing FM-G was flown by Sqn Denzil Jenkins.

“This aircraft has been designed to commemorate and celebrate the 80th anniversary of Op Overlord. We’re looking forward to displaying this new livery this season.”

Earlier this month, six RAF Typhoons were moved from Romania and were redeployed to help defend Israel.

The Typhoon is capable of dropping Paveway IV precision-guided bombs and has been used to strike so-called Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.

Royal Navy’s sixth Astute-class submarine officially named ahead of launch

22nd April 2024 at 4:00pm

HMS Agamemnon Royal Navy officially named BAE Systems’ Submarines Barrow in Furness 220424 CREDIT BAE SYSTEMS
HMS Agamemnon is the sixth Astute-class nuclear-powered fleet submarine of the Royal Navy and takes her name from the ancient Greek king (Picture: BAE Systems)

The sixth of seven Astute-class submarines being built has officially been named Agamemnon at BAE Systems’ Submarines site in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria.

She takes her name from the ancient Greek king and is due to be launched later this year, ahead of being commissioned into the Royal Navy. 

At the ceremony, Agamemnon was blessed and christened with a bottle of beer from the local Ulverston Brewing Company, which was smashed against her hull.

Defence Procurement Minister James Cartlidge said: “HMS Agamemnon will play a vital role in defence of the nation, providing our Armed Forces with a competitive edge for decades to come. 

“The Astute-class programme continues to support tens of thousands of jobs, with these submarines being a leading example of our commitment to investing in British sovereign capabilities.”

Five Astute-class submarines are already in service, while work is also well underway in Barrow on the seventh and final boat.

At 97 metres long and weighing 7,400 tonnes, advanced nuclear technology means the Astute-class submarines never need to be refuelled.

They can manufacture their own oxygen and fresh water from the ocean and are able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing.

Equipped with world-leading sensors, the Astute-class submarines carry both Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes.

Steve Timms, managing director of BAE Systems’ Submarines business, called it a “key milestone for Agamemnon and the UK nuclear submarine programme”.

He added: “It contributes to the Government’s Defence Nuclear Enterprise Command Paper, which underpinned the importance of our business and Barrow in delivering this national endeavour.  

“The Astute-class submarines are a vital component of our nation’s defence capabilities and we are fully focused on completing the remainder of Agamemnon’s programme so she can join her sister submarines in service with the Royal Navy.”

The first Royal Navy vessel to bear the name Agamemnon saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar and is remembered as Vice Admiral Lord Nelson’s favourite ship.

Royal Navy finds uninhabited Henderson Island has been marked on charts in the wrong place for 85 years

Sky News – March 12, 2022·2 min read

The Royal Navy has found a remote uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean has been in the wrong place for 85 years.

British sailors have discovered that Henderson Island, which is one of four Pitcairn Islands, is a mile south of the position marked on charts, which have been used by seafarers since 1937.

On Thursday evening, the HMS Spey confirmed the error during efforts to check and update charts regarding British Overseas Territories around the globe.

Sailors used radar and GPS satellites to get new images of the island’s exact position and when they were compared with existing charts, it was found the island was in the wrong place.

“In theory, the image returned by the radar should sit exactly over the charted feature – in this case, Henderson Island,” Lieutenant Michael Royle explained.

“I found that wasn’t the case – the radar overlay was a mile away from the island, which means that the island was plotted in the incorrect position when the chart was first produced.

“The notes on the chart say that it was produced in 1937 from aerial photography, which implies that the aircraft which took the photos was slightly off in its navigational calculations.”

Henderson Island is uninhabited and is about the size of Oxford.

It is one of four islands in the remote Pitcairn chain, with Chile 3,600 miles (5,793km) to the east and New Zealand 3,200 (5,149km) miles southwest.

The island was last visited by the Royal Navy in 2018 by HMS Montrose during an environmental survey to study the impact of plastic waste in the oceans.

Currents from the Pacific Ocean dumb masses of debris – an estimated 270 objects a day – on the shoreline of Henderson Island, earning it the title of “most polluted island in the world”.

Northland sailor finally gets to Gallipoli to pay respects

Chief Petty Officer David Tapene has been serving with the Royal New Zealand Navy for nearly a quarter of a century and is now at the Gallipoli Peninsula in Türkiye to pay his respects to those who served there during the 1915 battle.

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22 APRIL, 2024

Chief Petty Officer Tapene, from Hikurangi, north of Whangārei, enlisted in 2001. He specialised in communications and has since deployed throughout Asia, Hawaii, the Gulf of Arabia and Australia.

This week he is part of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent in Türkiye taking part in the commemoration services for the Gallipoli campaign.

“I was fortunate to be picked as a kairākau – the holder of the ceremonial rākau (staff) – and as a kaihaka as well, or a performer.”

He was not aware of any immediate family ties to Gallipoli, but said family on the East Coast and Northland may have served there.

Chief Petty Officer Tapene said it was important for him to attend the Gallipoli commemorations, because the generation of servicemen who landed at Gallipoli put Kiwis and Aotearoa on the map.

“These guys put their lives straight on the line. Out of respect for that you have got to go and give them a thank you, a haka of thanks.”

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CHIEF PETTY OFFICER DAVID TAPENE HAS BEEN PERFORMING CEREMONIAL ROLES AT VARIOUS SITES ON THE GALLIPOLI PENINSULA AHEAD OF THIS YEAR’S ANZAC DAY COMMEMORATIONS IN TÜRKIYE

Most of the 40-strong NZDF contingent arrived in Türkiye about a week before the 25 April anniversary to acclimatise and rehearse before various commemorative events.

Battlefield tours were part of the programme so that members could not only learn more about their predecessors but, to a certain degree, follow in their footsteps.

“It’s another level. This terrain is unreal and to actually walk it seems special. We are very lucky to be here.”

The contingent visited the site of the Maori Pah, which was rededicated last year. The 477-strong Māori contingent of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force was mostly based there during the Gallipoli campaign.

Now, more than 100 years after the ill-fated campaign, the NZDF’s Māori Cultural Group has sung an uplifting song at the solemn site.

“We could perform a haka, but I thought we’d sing a song to uplift the wairua (spirit) and get them standing up too,” Chief Petty Officer Tapene said.