Project Protector

Project Protector was a Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) procurement project that was undertaken during the 2000s. At the start of the decade, the New Zealand government tasked the New Zealand Defence Force to develop an equal combat, peacekeeping, and disaster relief capability, in which the RNZN was to focus on conducting sealift operations and patrols of the Economic Exclusion Zone. A series of reviews found that the RNZN was lacking in these capabilities, and Project Protector was established to acquire three new ship types: a single multi-role sealift ship, two offshore patrol vessels, and four inshore patrol vessels. After a two-year information-gathering and tender process, an Australian company, Tenix Defence, was selected as the primary contractor.

The sealift ship, HMNZS Canterbury, was built by Dutch company Merwede Shipyard in Rotterdam, and based on a commercial roll-on/roll-off ferry built for the Isle of Man. In mid-2007, the ship became the first Project Protector vessel to enter service, but problems during her early career required a remedial program to be put in place. The two Protector class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) were built by Tenix at their Melbourne, Australia, shipyard to a design used by the Irish Naval Service, but several design mistakes resulted in the ships being 100 tons heavier than planned, and the OPVs were not commissioned until 2010. Four Protector class inshore patrol vessels (IPVs) were built at Tenix's North Island shipyard, and entered service during 2009. Because of the delay in bringing the ships to active duty (all seven were due into service by the end of 2007), BAE Systems Australia (which had acquired Tenix in 2008) was required to pay a compensatory settlement to the RNZN in early 2010.

In the June 2000 Defence Policy Framework (DPF), the New Zealand government identified that the New Zealand Defence Force had to be equally capable of both combat and peacekeeping operations. From the navy's perspective, prioritisation was given to sealift and transport of New Zealand Army units and equipment, and to maritime surveillance of both New Zealand's 3,000,000-square-kilometre (1,200,000 sq mi) Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ), and the EEZs of allied South Pacific nations. The RNZN was also required to develop a non-military operational capability that would allow it to undertake tasks such as disaster relief, throughout the region.

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