Defence Force releases 50-page report on the future Army
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has released a 50-page report on how the New Zealand Army should prepare for future warfare. The document, the Future Fighting Concept, sets out the Army's thinking on the technology it expects to shape conflict.
The report follows a 2017 document, "Future Land Operating Concept 2035", which was based on forecasts from the Army General Staff, the body that develops and maintains the Army's future operating concepts. The 2017 report described how Russia deployed 13 fixed-wing drones, which fly like small aeroplanes, and one type of quadcopter over Donbas, a region of eastern Ukraine, after its annexation of Crimea. It also stated that a drone linked to a rocket launcher could deliver fire missions, or artillery strikes, within 15 minutes of identifying a target.
RNZ reports that militaries have now reduced the "kill chain", the term the Pentagon uses for the sequence from spotting a target to striking it, to seconds. The same report says drones themselves can now act as weapons, bearing down on Kyiv at speeds of up to 1000km/h.
The Future Fighting Concept states that the Army must prioritise investment in advanced capabilities that improve its agility, lethality and responsiveness. It lists key focus areas including artificial intelligence, machine teaming, predictive analysis, distributed decision-making, network-centric warfare, automation and rapid targeting, and cyber and electromagnetic spectrum operations. The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of radio and other signals used for communications and sensors. The report states that dominance in that area would be decisive.
The NZDF is part of the Coalition Information Environment project, which aims to let militaries view a battlefield in the same way.
Several related decisions and proposals have been made public in recent months. RNZ has reported that NZDF drone doctrine, the force's set of guiding principles for drone use, focuses on keeping humans in the loop, meaning a person makes the final decisions. Budget 2026 includes funding for new surveillance drones for the NZDF, though the amount has not been specified.
A Minister of Defence paper seeks agreement in principle, subject to Budget 2026 decisions, to establish a Defence Technology Accelerator. A separate paper seeks approval to deliver counter-drone capabilities for the NZDF. The New Zealand Army is also building First Person View (FPV) drone capability, which are drones piloted through a live camera feed, through a new specialist course.
In July 2026, the NZDF joined the US Army to test high-tech weapons, according to RNZ.
