1923–1939: a permanent air force of eleven people
New Zealand’s military flying began as an afterthought. A Blériot monoplane was presented in 1913, more than 800 New Zealanders flew or served in British and Australian air arms during the First World War, and more than 70 of them died, according to NZHistory. The New Zealand Permanent Air Force was gazetted only on 14 June 1923, at Sockburn near Christchurch, the field later called Wigram. NZHistory counts four officers and seven other ranks, eleven full-time staff, backed by about 100 part-time territorials; the Wikipedia history gives two other ranks, so the exact figure differs between accounts. Its early aircraft included Avro 504Ks, Bristol Fighters and a few DH.9s. On 1 April 1937 the Royal New Zealand Air Force became an independent service, and work started on new bases at Whenuapai, Ohakea and Woodbourne. When war came in September 1939 it had 756 full-time personnel.
1939–1945: Bomber Command, the Solomons and Rabaul
The Second World War turned that small service into a large one. In 1939 New Zealand had ordered 30 Wellington bombers; with war declared, the aircraft and their New Zealand crews stayed in Britain and became No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron RAF, which later flew Stirlings, Lancasters and Lincolns. Through the Empire Air Training Scheme a further 7,002 New Zealand airmen joined RAF squadrons, and seven RAF squadrons carried a New Zealand identity. At home, the threat changed after Pearl Harbor. Hudsons, then Venturas, Kittyhawks, Corsairs, Avengers, Dauntlesses and Catalinas went to Fiji, the New Hebrides, Guadalcanal, Bougainville and the campaign against Rabaul. The Air Force Museum credits RNZAF Kittyhawks with 99 Japanese aircraft destroyed in air combat. NZHistory gives a peak in 1944 of 42,000 personnel and 1,336 aircraft, and 3,635 RNZAF dead by the end of the war.
1946–1975: jets in Cyprus and Malaya, Canberras in Borneo, transports in Vietnam
Peace shrank the force to 5,300 people by mid-1946, but it did not end its overseas work. No. 14 Squadron flew Corsairs with the occupation forces in Japan from 1946 to 1948, No. 41 Squadron flew in the Berlin airlift, and in 1952 No. 14 Squadron took Vampire jets to Cyprus as part of Britain’s Middle East air force. On 1 May 1955, five of its Vampires flew from Tengah against guerrillas in Malaya, the RNZAF’s first combat strike since 1945; the squadron flew 115 strike missions in three years. No. 75 Squadron followed with Canberras at Tengah from 1958. In the Confrontation with Indonesia from 1964 to 1966, No. 14 Squadron’s Canberras stood ready in Singapore while Bristol Freighters dropped supplies to troops in Borneo. In Vietnam the RNZAF’s part was mainly transport: Hercules and Freighters, and from 1967 pilots flying Iroquois with No. 9 Squadron RAAF and forward air control with the USAF.
1970–2001: the Skyhawk years and the end of the air combat force
The A-4K Skyhawk, ten single-seaters and four TA-4K two-seaters, arrived in 1970 and gave No. 75 Squadron a modern attack jet; ten more ex-Royal Australian Navy aircraft were bought in 1984 and the fleet was upgraded with new avionics under Project Kahu, approved in 1985. From 1991 No. 2 Squadron flew Skyhawks from Nowra in New South Wales to train Australian ships. A 1999 plan for 28 F-16s, chosen by the National government, was cancelled by the Labour government that followed, which in 2001 decided to disband the air combat force entirely. On 13 December 2001 the Governor-General laid up the standards of Nos 2, 14 and 75 Squadrons at Ohakea. NZHistory calls the decision controversial; the government framed it as a choice to concentrate on peacekeeping and on the surveillance and transport the country used most. Most of the fighter pilots left to fly for the RAAF and RAF, and the Skyhawks and Aermacchis sat in storage until most were sold in 2012.
2001–2025: surveillance, airlift and the Antarctic run
What remained was a surveillance and airlift force, and its busiest work was often far from war. The Hercules, in service since 1965, made the first RNZAF flight to Antarctica on 27 October 1965 and have flown summer missions to the ice ever since; the Orions arrived in 1966. The 2002 modernisation upgraded both fleets, two second-hand Boeing 757s replaced the 727s in 2003, and NH90 and A109 helicopters replaced the Iroquois and Sioux, the Iroquois retiring on 1 July 2015 after 49 years. Eleven T-6C Texan IIs took over pilot training from 2015, and No. 14 Squadron returned to life to fly them. The Hercules went to the 1991 Gulf war, to Afghanistan from 2001 and, in August 2021, to the Kabul evacuation. After the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011 the air force mounted what Wikipedia calls the biggest movement of people and freight in its history.
2024–2026: P-8A, C-130J and a rebuilt transport fleet — what has changed, and what is still missing
Between 2022 and 2025 the RNZAF replaced almost everything it flies over the ocean. Four Boeing P-8A Poseidons, approved for $2.34 billion in 2018, arrived from December 2022, moved No. 5 Squadron to Ohakea and reached full operational release on 9 December 2025. Five C-130J-30s arrived between September and December 2024, and the C-130Hs were retired on 31 January 2025 after 60 years. The 2025 Defence Capability Plan then promised $12 billion over four years, and in August 2025 the government chose two Airbus A321XLRs to replace the 757s from 2028 and began negotiations for five MH-60R Seahawks to replace the Navy’s Seasprites. The gaps are just as clear. There are still no combat aircraft; the P-8As go to Australia for depot maintenance because New Zealand has never had that capability; and RNZ reported that by late 2023 Poseidon maintenance staff had fallen to half the number required.