{"id":549347,"date":"2026-07-29T09:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549347\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:48:16","slug":"new-zealand-military-seeks-to-buy-one-way-strike-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549347\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Military Seeks to Buy &#8216;One-Way Strike Drones&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/dronefront.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#13;<br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WhatsAppVideo2026-05-15at09.23.58.gif\" alt=\"The Drone Front\" width=\"1280\" height=\"539\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand is looking to buy \u201cone-way strike drones\u201d as it seeks to modernize its military, Defense Minister Chris Penk said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wellington unveiled plans in 2025 to retool its military for modern warfare, including investments in submarine-hunting helicopters and unmanned drones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Penk said New Zealand was seeking human-operated strike drones that offered a cheaper alternative to conventional missiles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u201cone-way strike drones\u201d would be equipped with explosive payloads, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Penk said New Zealand would soon go to market to find drone suppliers, with a particular interest in working with homegrown businesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand was also looking to buy long-range unarmed drones for maritime surveillance, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand has been embarking on a <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2026\/05\/28\/new-zealand-defense-spending-budget-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">major effort to rebuild its military<\/a>, facing what it described in 2025 as the \u201cmost challenging and dangerous\u201d security environment in decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although not a treaty ally of the United States, Wellington and Washington nonetheless have a close strategic partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; New Zealand is looking to buy \u201cone-way strike drones\u201d as it seeks to modernize its military,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25094,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-549347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-drone","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549347","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=549347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}