I think something modeled off the Swiss militia system would work, with a small professional core functions + logistics, sf, etc.

Having some up to date, kit, would help retain members

Great idea for the voluntary gap year.

Stop holding people back because of injuries 10+ years ago would help keep numbers up. I've been declined several times purely because of passed injuries that don't affect me at all. It's stupidly hard to join at the moment

amazing how every coutry is having the exact same issue

My dad did the old National Service back in the day, can’t see them doing it again

Idk maybe pay the sqaudies a wage that’s not worse than someone who works as bar staff? The Aussies are poaching our soldiers with offers of a decent wage. Would you not leave this country for a 50k raise? I would.

I signed up as a 16 year old in 1992 got out in 2000 and rejoined 06-08 and when I came back to put it bluntly it had turned to shit 💩 couldn’t yell at soldiers lest they get upset no soldier fails any course except for SAS Selection I got out the second time after only 2 years because it was dog shit 💩 🔥 🔥 🔥

NZ should be a regular participant in exercises with Australia and USA. Make it real. Reopen the ANZUS treaty and let US ships into your ports. Plus have a battalion permanently based in Australia to be forward deployed with Australia.

How about pay parity. NZDF doesn't go on strike about pay and conditions.

Pay decent money. Offer suitable housing at a heavily discounted rate. Bring back the 20 year service pensions. Take part in large scale exercises with allies at least once per year.

The Australian have an excellent exchange program. As an American soldier both active and a reservist. Who has ambitions in moving to NZ with a degree. I could tell you NZ can produce a efficient fighting force like the Marine Expeditionary Forces and Small Infantry Forces with Special Operations capabilities. NZ has produce it in Afghanistan not every soldier need to be a top tier special operator but with relaxation on entry processes and a specialize cirriculum with soldier who have passed a demanding selection process that is flexible for the everyday soldier. I can assure you. You can have discipline men understanding the general aspects of the specialized capabilities.

Even if a more regional focus was adopted, units would still need to be sent north to train/operate with allies in order to retain interoperability, currency on equipment, comms, doctrine etc. and to, perhaps most importantly, build and maintain professional relationships at all levels. If this doesn't happen, it will degrade NZ's ability to operate and integrate with allies on those occasions when they come down to the Pacific. So, this is about structural reform and offering rewarding career paths, and less about deployment destinations and geopolitics.

Gap year is a good idea if you don’t want to stay you learn valuable skills

Too many peace keepers and not enough soldiers!

Look at what the air force does (as they have the best retention rate 10-15+ years) and apply it to the army (who have an abysmal retention rate of 3-5 years). Instead of denying there are issues to address :D

Still angry bout fighter situation

They can't operate without Australia

No one wants to fight for ZOG.

Having done that course a few years ago and in the exact same place, i have to say it was the most pathetic training i ever did. Was a huge part in me leaving the service.

Good standards not standards based on what the average female can handle. Good job nz adopted aussie doctrine as nz never had any really

Give them sabbaticals like the All Blacks

Could that guy have any less emotion

We need to have another cool war like world war 2 or vietnam that would be cool!

Pull your heads in and become part of the Australian Defence Force! Nothing wrong with having a NZ Regiment within their Army.

Australia would be about the min size for a nation to begin to have a comprehensive defence force which requires roughly 100,000 man army, 100 fighter bombers and ten frigates. In many senses NZ abandoned conventional defence about 1955 when reserves were reduced and national service was reduced to a lottery done by about 1/10. The evidence of WW1 and WW2 for NZ and Australia was that civilian armies are effective more in myth than reality, sustain terrible casualties with poor calibre modest IQ troops and poor training and far too often are too slow to stand and fight and follow orders. The glory and greatness of the NZ Army were almost always the Maori units, in Italy with equal numbers good German units would often taken 2/3 days to get past Maori troops. It usually took less than minute for an a good German company to destroy an equivalent Pakeha force. The German army always desired to recruit Maori soldiers, even for SS units even in 1938 the Luckner German 'peace'??? tourists aimed there meetings and indoctrinations heavily at Maoris whose military talents shown in WW1 was one of the few things that impressed them here. In a sense I think the Germans saw Maori units as as possible counter to the North Korean shock troops which spearheaded the Russian Army in the Battle of Moscow and if captured were often invited to fight in the German forces. For New Zealand and Australia even greater problems after ,WW1 and WW2 occurred with the return of destabalised violent and drunk individuals who roamed the countryside.The scale of the problems in Australia, meant after WW2 all the political parties agreed, that to occupy much of the ordinary people postwar, a widedpread factory system of employment would be used to occupy the less than 105 IQ, with long hours of heavy work to preclude involvement in sport and general social activity. Australian military employment in tbe regular forces😢 extended as in NZ in the 1950-1972 period to those who were not really up to it so they could avoid borstal, prison or the general hard factory work. Both in Britain and NZ in the 195Os National Service did not succed in raising great numbers of those used to useful military and civilian standards and was both very expensive and slowed social and economic growth. For nations like the USA and USSR which were still partly war economies in 1960s National Service was arguably useful and necessary if it meant the best and brightest had to serve as well as the gheto. Post war NZ overseas army deployments were generally much smaller scale than Australian. in Korea of the 3 US overall army commanders, only Ridgeway was prepared to use NZ troops While the RNZN ratings of the 6 Loch class frigates were controlled by fairly tight discipline of RN pretty officers. One of the central problems of overseas operational deployments of RNZN cruisers and frigates under Seato, ANZUK command in 1960s and 1970s was discipline and insubordination. The idea that operational deployment means being fired at even with small arms where more demanding operational routing of say Royalist in 1964 or soft power deployments like that of HMNZS Otago and Canterbury to protest bomb tests at Muroroa were the main weapons used and in fact the main weapons on RNZN frigates since 1960 to today are the radar, sonar, communication and electronic intercept and classification systems.P8, OPV and Anzac frigate patrols and monitoring of Chinese fishing, auxiliaries and warships in the region might best be structured by membership of the Quad+1 or quintile which might be the realistic arrangement for what the nation is about.🎉

Abolish wokeness and replace leadership at the top with battle harden leaders who have been in combat etc.

Stop with the cultural element.

conscriptions of Maori instead of prison give them a chance especially the young offenders