April 25, 2011, 6:59 AM HKT
Anybody Want to Buy a Fighter Jet?
An A-4 Skyhawk aircraft from Argentina’s Air Force is similar to the planes New Zealand is trying to unload.
Attention aspiring jet owners: The New Zealand government is selling eight decommissioned fighter aircrafts to the highest bidders.
The sale comes at a bad time for the New Zealand government, which is so heavily in debt that its growing deficit has global rating agencies worried. Also, it’s an election year and the sitting minister of finance is working on his budget.
The 1960s-era planes have been sitting in storage since 2002 – the country disbanded the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 2001 — and the government has been looking for a buyer ever since. According to some reports, an unnamed American businessman signed a contract to buy all 17 American-made A-4KT and TA-4K Skyhawk fighter aircraft, but the sale fell through and the planes have continued to gather dust with no willing buyers coming forward.
The New Zealand air force acquired seven of the planes in 1969 and later picked up 10 jets in the 1980s. Not surprisingly, the planes are no longer the height of military technology, but they are still in use in some armed forces.
Earlier this month, Wayne Mapp, the country’s minister of defense, announced that nine of the fighter planes would be offered to museums in New Zealand and Australia. The remaining eight, however, will be sold at auction, and the government will even throw in some spare engines and parts, as well as ground-support equipment.
But don’t expect the planes to come combat-ready. The Skyhawks, the defense minister said in his tender document, are being offered on an “as-is, where-is basis without any warranty as to fitness for purpose or air worthiness in its current state.”
Mr. Mapp went as far as to suggest the planes might be sold for spare parts. “There has already been interest in this prospect which is more in line with the realities of today’s marketplace,” he said in a statement.
The tender, for which registration is due May 16, will not close until the week of the New Zealand budget May 19, so any sale is unlikely to offer the government any extra cash by then.
Anybody Want a Fighter Jet? -- Scene Asia - Scene Asia - WSJ
Anybody Want to Buy a Fighter Jet?
An A-4 Skyhawk aircraft from Argentina’s Air Force is similar to the planes New Zealand is trying to unload.
Attention aspiring jet owners: The New Zealand government is selling eight decommissioned fighter aircrafts to the highest bidders.
The sale comes at a bad time for the New Zealand government, which is so heavily in debt that its growing deficit has global rating agencies worried. Also, it’s an election year and the sitting minister of finance is working on his budget.
The 1960s-era planes have been sitting in storage since 2002 – the country disbanded the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 2001 — and the government has been looking for a buyer ever since. According to some reports, an unnamed American businessman signed a contract to buy all 17 American-made A-4KT and TA-4K Skyhawk fighter aircraft, but the sale fell through and the planes have continued to gather dust with no willing buyers coming forward.
The New Zealand air force acquired seven of the planes in 1969 and later picked up 10 jets in the 1980s. Not surprisingly, the planes are no longer the height of military technology, but they are still in use in some armed forces.
Earlier this month, Wayne Mapp, the country’s minister of defense, announced that nine of the fighter planes would be offered to museums in New Zealand and Australia. The remaining eight, however, will be sold at auction, and the government will even throw in some spare engines and parts, as well as ground-support equipment.
But don’t expect the planes to come combat-ready. The Skyhawks, the defense minister said in his tender document, are being offered on an “as-is, where-is basis without any warranty as to fitness for purpose or air worthiness in its current state.”
Mr. Mapp went as far as to suggest the planes might be sold for spare parts. “There has already been interest in this prospect which is more in line with the realities of today’s marketplace,” he said in a statement.
The tender, for which registration is due May 16, will not close until the week of the New Zealand budget May 19, so any sale is unlikely to offer the government any extra cash by then.
Anybody Want a Fighter Jet? -- Scene Asia - Scene Asia - WSJ
