New Zealand to procure loitering munitions

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (1RNZIR) receive training from a DefendTex instructor on the Drone40 system in February 2023. (New Zealand Defence Force)

New Zealand's Defence Minister Chris Penk announced on 29 July that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to procure human-operated loitering munitions.

Penk said the MoD has begun the acquisition process and is particularly interested in domestically developed solutions. He added that the MoD will “soon” release a request for information (RFI) for loitering munition systems.

Loitering munitions are expected to provide the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) with a lower-cost precision-strike capability than conventional missiles, he said.

“We cannot have prosperity without security. As the international security environment becomes increasingly unpredictable, we must ensure the [NZDF] can operate effectively, including alongside our partners, to deter potential threats and protect New Zealand's security,” Penk said.

The NZDF has been experimenting with loitering munitions since 2023. In comments to Janes in April 2023 and in a document released in December 2023, the NZDF said that, as part of this experimentation, it had acquired three inert Drone40 loitering munitions from Australian company DefendTex.

The NZDF told Janes at the time that the New Zealand Army and the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) had been prioritised for the experimentation. According to the December 2023 document, the experimentation was intended to examine the command-and-control (C2) aspects of deploying loitering munitions.