Each ferry would measure 200 metres in length by 28 metres wide, with room for more than 1500 passengers, 70 crew, and 2.4 kilometres of lanes for trucks, cars and rail wagons.
The vessels would be diesel-electric hybrids with batteries, designed to reduce emissions and environmental impact.
I’m glad the hybrid power train was carried over from the previous design, it means the ferries could potentially do a crossing solely on battery power.
No information on whether they will be a plug in hybrid.
Holy shit, did they FINALLY do something competent?
Honestly, all the purchase decisions made by this government have been very reasonable and level headed.
The aircraft types purchased have all been very common ones, used by our allies, with good manufacturer support and very little chance of being stuck with an aircraft type we can’t get parts for. This includes the Poseidon, Hercules, Sea Hawk helicopters, and the A321, as well as the ferries.
They do infrastructure very well, I’ll give them that.
@Ilovethebomb @AWOL_muppet , Helen Clark mentioned once the amount of actual use of some of the military vehicles purchased in the past and it was as close to zero as you can get.
That should’ve been taken into consideration on which to buy but
afaik hasn’t.
So in reality - toys for the military but no ferries, no…, no…, no…
That was the LAVs, there were some that were only getting driven for maintenance purposes. We sold a handful a few years ago for that reason.
This isn’t the case with our aircraft though, our fixed wing fleet in particular is very heavily utilised.
@Ilovethebomb , I remember her saying something about a navy vessel - ‘one warning shot across the bough of an illegal fishing boost in 15 years’…
I’m looking at value for the average citizen in spending - it is burning money often for things that could be substituted for much cheaper and more useful alternatives and therefore imho equals theft from
‘the greater good’ mostly for political reasons that now also indirectly support genocide.
Helen Clark just attended a military parade in China, alongside Putin and Xi Jinping, I wouldn’t be in a rush to quote her as far as China is concerned.
@Ilovethebomb , interesting, since people seem to quote with pride the dropping of atomic bombs that are hailed as solution to end WW2 and Japanese atrocities in Asia.
A little hypocrisy goes a long way.
We never shy of mentioning Clark when promoting our good relations with China where economic profits are concerned.
I’m not sure how you go from Helen Clark to nuking Japan, but OK.
@Ilovethebomb , it sounded like an accusation by you that Clark (and Key by the way) visited China celebrating the end of a time when they suffered greatly under Japan.
The West seems to have forgotten that but still glorifies other atrocities.
War and most military actions are a disgrace to humanity and therefore as a follow on most military vehicles/machines are not only useless to common folks but also an utter waste of money.
https://mas.to/@anna/_lillith/115159225445980707