Didn't the New Zealand Navy cross the Taiwan Strait in formation with the Japan and Australia navies a few days ago, and the result was that "retribution" soon came.
On October 6, the New Zealand Navy's multipurpose support ship "Manawanui" ran aground on the night of the 5th, off the south coast of Upolu Island, Samoa, while conducting seabed survey work, caught fire and ran aground, seriously tilted, and sank on the morning of the 6th local time.
After the accident, a total of 75 crew members and passengers on board the ship were evacuated from the ship via life rafts and boats and arrived safely in Samoa, three of whom required medical attention.
Don't underestimate the sinking of such a ship, the losses for the New Zealand Navy can be said to be very heavy!
The sunken multipurpose support ship "A09 HMNZS" has a displacement of 5,741 tons, a speed of 13 knots, a total length of 85 meters and a width of 18 meters. The vessel was built in 2003 by the Myklebust Verft shipyard in Gulsken, Norway, for Norway Offshore Oil and Gas Services.
In 2018, New Zealand bought it for 110 million New Zealand dollars (about 450 million yuan), and then sent it to the Olskov shipyard in Frederikshafen, Denmark, to modify the diving and hydrographic survey system, and then delivered it to the Devonport naval base in New Zealand.
The ship has been in service with the Royal New Zealand Navy since 2019, and in 2020 it participated in the Rim of the Pacific exercise near Hawaii, in 2022 it participated in a multinational operation to clear World War II ammunition in Tuvalu, and in 2023 it conducted submarine surveys and World War II bomb disposal in Niue, Fiji and Vanuatu.
Although the support ship nominally belongs to the New Zealand Navy, its main mission is to carry out support work for oceanographic surveying and deep-sea diving operations, and the equipment of the whole ship is highly targeted at these tasks, so it is more like a "scientific research ship", and in fact it is not combative.
New Zealand is vague about the reason for the sinking of the warship, saying only that it ran aground during a coral reef research mission, and then caught fire and tilted and sank for unknown reasons.
Due to the three-hour window between the tilt of the hull and the complete sinking of the warship, the dozens of crew members had plenty of time to move to Upolu Island by helicopter and rescue boat.
From the whole rescue process, it can be said that it is unhurried and leisurely, and New Zealand even reported: "The crew of the New Zealand Navy Manawanui and Samoan firefighters smiled on the beach." ”
It's really a bit of a funeral, and then the military mushroom picked up the information and found that the captain of this ship is also a little interesting. The captain at the time of the sinking of the ship was a woman named Yvoni · Gray, who had served as a Royal Navy officer in United Kingdom United Kingdom, moved to New Zealand with his wife in 2012, and became the captain of the Manavanui in 2022.
Yes, you read that right, her wife, United Kingdom and New Zealand both passed the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2013, so they are legal couples.
After the sinking of the ship, the Russian media TOP WAR also commented mockingly: "Considering that Manawanui commander Ivoni · Gray married another woman, we must consider the capabilities of the New Zealand Navy to be secondary, and inclusiveness and commitment to liberal values are primary." ”
It's really murderous!
Because New Zealand is remote, surrounded by the sea, and the natural marine barrier makes it free from the threat of foreign enemies, there is no national defense pressure, and the size of the army is also very small, and the sinking of this warship means that the New Zealand Navy has lost about 10% of its combat effectiveness!
Previously, the New Zealand Navy had a total strength of about 2,000 personnel, 392 reserve troops, 108 civilian personnel, and had 2 Anzac-class frigates, 1 large oil and water supply ship INS Otaloa, 1 multi-purpose support ship HMS Canterbury, 1 USS Manawanui, 2 Otago-class offshore patrol ships, 4 patrol boats and 5 helicopters.
Among them, 2 Anzac-class frigates are the absolute main warships, it is said that it was still in the mid-80s of the last century, the four Leander-class frigates of the New Zealand Navy are too old and need to be replaced, and it just so happens that the Australia Navy also wants to replace its old destroyer.
▲Leander-class frigates
So, the two hit it off and found Germany Bolong · Foss to buy ten MKEO 200 frigates in one go, which were imported from Germany by Australia and New Zealand at that time, and then the shipyards in Australia and New Zealand built hull modules respectively, Australia Mansfield-Amecon was responsible for the final assembly, and these frigates were also renamed the Anzac class.
▲MKEO 200 frigate
Construction of the first ship of the class began in 1993, launched in 1994 and commissioned in 1996, with a total of 10 ships built, all of which were commissioned in 2006, of which 8 were allocated to the Australia Navy and 2 to the New Zealand Navy.
Originally, New Zealand still had two additional purchase options before 1997, but its domestic public opinion generally believed that this frigate was too professional, and it was completely anti-aircraft guns to fight mosquitoes in New Zealand, and it was not cheap, so in the end it was shelved and did not continue to purchase, becoming the main force of the New Zealand Navy today.
The Anzac-class frigate has a length of 118 meters, a width of 14.8 meters, a draft of 4.35 meters, a standard displacement of 2,500 tons, a full load displacement of 3,600 tons, and uses an LM2500 gas turbine plus two MTU diesel engines, with a maximum speed of 27 knots and a maximum endurance of 6,500 nautical miles.
In terms of shipborne weapons, the Anzac-class is equipped with a MK45 127mm main gun, and the Australia version of the Anzac-class is to put two quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missiles at the B gun position, but New Zealand is not equipped, after all, there is no coastal defense pressure.
Behind the chimney is an 8-unit MK41 vertical hair system, loaded with 32 Sea Sparrow short-range air defense missiles, although this actual space is enough to arrange 16 units, but Australia and New Zealand are only equipped with 8 units, and later in the mid-2018 modification, both of them replaced Sea Sparrow with United Kingdom "Sea Receptor" air defense missile vertical hair, a full 20 units.
▲The red circle is the vertical hair device, and the green circle is the torpedo tube
Its close defense armament is a phalanx melee gun at the stern of the ship, plus two mini-typhoon machine guns. In addition, it is equipped with two triple 324 mm MK-32 torpedo tubes and one Kaman SH-2G Super Sea Elf anti-submarine helicopter.
The ship's main radar was also converted from the Sea Giraffe 9LV 453 sea/air search radar to the Thales Smart-S Mk2 3D phased array radar in mid-2018, at a cost of $600 million with anti-aircraft missile upgrades. Overall, it can be said that the sparrows are small and have all the organs.
In addition to frigates, the New Zealand Navy relies most on the Otago-class patrol ships, which are 85 meters long and 14 meters wide, with a standard displacement of 1,600 tons, a full load displacement of 1,900 tons, and a maximum speed of 22 knots.
The ship's armament includes a DS-25M 25mm remote-controlled weapon station, two 12.7mm heavy machine guns, an assault gunboat on the left and right sides of the middle of the hull, and an SH-2G carrier-based helicopter can take off and land on the aft helicopter deck.
The Canterbury multi-purpose amphibious transport ship, built on the basis of commercial ro-ro ships, has a full load displacement of more than 9,000 tons, entered service in June 2007, uses diesel-electric propulsion, and has a maximum speed of more than 19 knots.
The ship's armament includes one 25 mm naval gun, four 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, and can carry four NH-90 helicopters at the same time.
In addition to carrying various armored vehicles, the internal dock is capable of carrying 2 medium hovercraft with a displacement of 59 tons.
The four inshore patrol boats, with a displacement of 340 tonnes, were all built at the shipyard in Huanggaray, New Zealand, and were commissioned in 2009 to withstand the harsh sea conditions in the patrol area.
The only one large oil and water supply ship USS Otloa was built by Korea, with a length of 173 meters, a width of 24,5 meters, a full load displacement of 26,000 tons, a capacity of 9,500 tons of cargo and 250 tons of fresh water, ice-breaking capabilities, and free navigation in the waters of Antarctica.
In addition, the New Zealand Navy has five helicopters, which are mainly used for surface rescue, aerial surveying, material transportation, medical assistance, personnel training and assisting the New Zealand government in completing other types of tasks, and the combat effectiveness is basically negligible.
On the whole, in fact, the strength of the New Zealand Navy is not as strong as a destroyer detachment of our army, but it is a small country after all, and it is quite painful to suffer such losses.
In recent years, the Western navy represented by United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand can be said to have frequent accidents, such as in 2018, one of the five "Aegis" missile frigates of the Norway Navy, "Insta", on the way back from sea exercises, collided with the "Soratis" oil tanker, hitting a wound of more than 8 meters on the side, and a large amount of sea water poured into the warship for a time.
The captain of the "Insta" decisively decided to run aground on the nearest beach, and then all the crew abandoned the ship and waited for rescue. As a result, after 6 days of rescue, the ship sank because the crew forgot to close the watertight door when the ship was abandoned.
Not long ago, the United States Navy supply ship "Big Horn" also ran into a reef in the Gulf region due to crew misoperation, which actually shows that the quality of naval personnel in these countries is declining rapidly, and these accidents are only an inevitable reaction caused by this.