{"id":463010,"date":"2026-06-05T21:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T21:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/463010\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T21:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T21:50:09","slug":"new-zealand-to-buy-mh-60r-helicopters-mk-54-torpedoes-in-2-7b-us-deal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/463010\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand to buy MH-60R helicopters, MK\u202f54 torpedoes in $2.7b US deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US approval for the sale follows comments from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth that amounted to accusing New Zealand of \u201cfreeloading\u201d during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last month.<\/p>\n

Collins\u2019 announcement last August, which also included plans to lease-to-buy two new Airbus A321XLR<\/a> planes to replace the current 757s, followed the Government\u2019s Defence Capability Plan promise earlier in the year to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP over eight years and funding $12b over four years to rebuild and modernise the New Zealand Defence Force.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth criticised New Zealand and other countries for not spending enough on defence when he spoke at a summit in Singapore last month. Photo \/ Ezra Acayan\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The US State Department said today the MH-60R helicopters\u2019 sale would improve New Zealand\u2019s \u201ccapability to meet current and future warfare threats by providing greater security for its critical infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand will use the enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defence,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The State Department said it had also approved a US$69m sale of MK 54 torpedoes to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The State Department had notified Congress about the proposed sales, which still need to be approved by lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Chris Penk was in Singapore<\/a> last month to hear Hegseth\u2019s public criticism of New Zealand\u2019s military spend \u2013 and other nations that spend less than 3.5% of GDP on defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who continue to free-ride on the generosity of the American taxpayer, hear us now: those days are over\u201d, Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllies that refuse to stand up and carry their weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business.\u201d<\/p>\n

– additional reporting by AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US approval for the sale follows comments from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth that amounted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[234699,15385,8613,3167,3468,15972,42,27513,78,234696,234697,117,43,23940,1133,9939,61,40,38,41,39,234698,9938,3040,26162,80],"class_list":["post-463010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-27b","tag-approved","tag-billion","tag-buy","tag-deal","tag-equipment","tag-headlines","tag-helicopters","tag-in","tag-mh60r","tag-mk-54","tag-new","tag-news","tag-related","tag-sale","tag-states","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-torpedoes","tag-united","tag-us","tag-us15","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}