- Bob
Leonard
In this our
annual report on American military/Intelligence flights at Christchurch
International Airport Peace Researcher
is pleased to reveal yet another decline in the frequency of those flights in
the period June 2001 through May 2002 (a flight-year as defined by NZ
diplomatic flight clearance). The table below tells the story over 12 years.
While the frequency of dedicated Antarctic support flights has increased to
some extent in the last couple of years, military flights have dropped to 15,
or just over one per month, in that same period
|
Flight Year |
Antarctic |
Military/ Intelligence |
Total
|
Percent Military |
|
1990-91 |
32 |
86 |
118 |
72.9 |
|
1991-92 |
71 |
97 |
168 |
57.7 |
|
1992-93 |
38 |
85 |
123 |
69.1 |
|
1993-94 |
47 |
63 |
110 |
57.3 |
|
1994-95 |
33 |
58 |
91 |
63.7 |
|
1995-96 |
28 |
79 |
107 |
73.8 |
|
1996-97 |
31 |
78 |
109 |
71.6 |
|
1997-98 |
37 |
66 |
103 |
64.1 |
|
1998-99 |
63 |
37 |
100 |
37.0 |
|
1999-00 |
48 |
27 |
75 |
36.0 |
|
2000-01 |
60 |
13 |
73 |
17.8 |
|
2001-02 |
92 |
15 |
107 |
14.0 |
|
Totals |
580 |
704 |
1284 |
54.8 |
This is not say
that the US Air Force (USAF) is not still heavily involved at our airport.
Since the demise of the US Naval logistics programme in 1998, heavy cargo and
personnel transport to and from the American and New Zealand bases on the Ice
has been the job of the Air Force. They use Starlifters, Globemasters,
Hercules, the occasional Galaxy, and assorted other aircraft from time to time.
The Ski-Hercules[1] are now
operated by the New York Air National Guard (NYANG), an arm of the Air Force
whose specially ski-equipped planes formerly saw military service in the Arctic
serving the obsolete DEWLINE (DEW = Distant Early Warning radar system for
detecting Soviet missile launches over the Arctic). But the Anti-Bases Campaign
considers the US military involvement in genuine Antarctic logistics as a
relatively minor irritant compared to the Channel flights. These flights have
served vast American military/Intelligence bases at Pine Gap and Nurrungar in
Australia for decades.
As we stated in
PR 24: “[Channel flights] remain an
unwelcome violation of the spirit of our Nuclear-Free Law since all of the
cargo aircraft are covered by the ‘neither confirm nor deny’ nuclear policy” (see comment on “Peace City” in box).
Although the frequency of these flights has declined to an all-time low of
just over one per month, the Channel flights effectively keep New Zealand
wide-open to the militarism of George Dubya and Co. The New Zealand government
has a long and deplorable record of allowing the civilian Antarctic research
programme to serve as a cover for American military business on the Ice and
elsewhere, including Australia and the Middle East. America’s rapidly
increasing global aggression and expansion of its network of military bases, in
the guise of a war on terrorism, could easily suck New Zealand into its
tentacles. The groundwork has already been laid at Harewood where an American
military base has existed within Christchurch for over 40 years.
[1] The NYANG Ski-Hercules flights are not included in the table because they are successors to the old Navy VXE-6 support flights that do not appear in the table. We consider them to be dedicated Antarctic flights that do not directly involve the USAF Air Mobility Command (AMC).