WELLINGTON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is to centralize much of its materiel in a logistics reform that will cost 130 million NZ dollars (93.6 million U.S. dollars) over the next five years, Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said Wednesday.
Smaller asset types, including vehicle fleets and firearms, would be centralized into regional pools where they could be stored and more efficiently maintained, Brownlee said in a statement.
"Adopting this approach will create an opportunity to shift around 1.6 billion NZ dollars (1.15 billion U.S. dollars) of capital over the next 25 years from inefficient holdings to a focussed investment on priority capabilities," said Brownlee.
However, the investment would not change how larger assets, such as ships and aircraft, were managed, as these large systems were already well managed.
"New Zealand's Defence Force holds a wide range of equipment, all of which needs to be stored, maintained and serviced so that it is ready and safe to use when required," Brownlee said.
"More efficient management will allow the Defence Force to reduce the volumes of some equipment held and to be more responsive to new technologies and threats," he said.
"This in turn ensures the capital invested in defense is able to be focussed on the equipment of highest priority."
In recent times, other countries had modernized the way their militaries managed logistics, getting greater value for money by managing their equipment holdings more efficiently.
"The New Zealand Defence Force will implement the best of these proven systems," Brownlee said.
The NZDF would complete plans to upgrade and build new infrastructure, such as storage facilities and maintenance workshops at Linton, in the lower North Island, and at Burnham, near Christchurch, in the South Island.
"Defense will also modernize its computer inventory systems so that all stock holdings can be tracked and their usage history analyzed," Brownlee said.
