Weaponry of the New Zealand Army

A NZLAV

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

• 105 x NZ Light Armoured Vehicle (NZLAV)
  • 95 Infantry Mobility Vehicle (IMV)
  • 7 Light Obstacle Blade Vehicle (LOB)
  • 3 Recovery Vehicle (LAV-R)

Light operational vehicles

• 352 x Pinzgauer High Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle (248 non-armoured / 60 armoured)
  • 122 / 23 command and control variants
  • 68 / 37 crew served weapon carrier variants
  • 95 general service variants
  • 15 shelter carrier variants
  • 8 ambulance variants
  • 13 special operations

Support vehicles

• U1700 Unimog trucks

Weapons

Assault Rifles

• Rifle 5.56mm IW Steyr The first 5000 weapons were manufactured by Steyr-Daimler-Puch, and all subsequent weapons have been manufactured by Thales Australia (formerly ADI). The New Zealand variant is similar to the Australian F88 Austeyr, but does not have the automatic lock out (ALO) button.
• L1A1 Self-loading rifle (in storage)

Pistols

• SIG P226 9 mm Pistol

Machine Guns

• Minimi 7.62TR Light Machine Gun
• FN MAG 58 7.62 mm GPMG
• M2 machine gun .50 Calibre Heavy Machine Gun

Grenade Launchers

• M203 grenade launcher

Shotguns

• Benelli M3 12 gauge Shotgun

Sniper Rifles

• L96 Sniper Rifle
• LMT 308 MWS
• Accuracy International AW50 Arctic Warfare AW50 12.7mm Anti Materiel/ sniper rifle

Fire support/artillery

• 50 x L16A2 81 mm Mortar
• 24 x 105 mm L119 Light Gun

Missile/rocket systems

• M72 Light Anti-Armour Weapon
• 42 x 84 mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle M3 Man-portable Light Anti-armour Weapon
• 24 x Javelin Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) launchers, 120 missiles
• 12 x Mistral Very Low Level Air Defence Weapon

Direct Fire Support Weapon

• H&K 40mm Grenade Machine Gun (GMG)

M113 replacement

New Zealand decided in 2003 to replace its existing fleet of M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, purchased in the 1960s, with the NZLAV, and the M113s were decommissioned by the end of 2004.^[1] An agreement made to sell the M113s via an Australian weapons dealer in February 2006 had to be cancelled when the US State Department refused permission for New Zealand to sell the M113s under a contract made when the vehicles were initially purchased.^[2]

The replacement of the M113s with the General Motors LAV III (NZLAV) led to a review in 2001 on the purchase decision-making by New Zealand's Auditor-General.^[3] The review found short-comings in the defence acquisition process but not the eventual vehicle selected.

In 2010 the government said it would look at the possibility of selling 35 LAVs, around a third of the fleet, as being surplus to requirements.^[4]

References