According to information published by the New Zealand Herald on 23 May, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Defence Force personnel would send 30 troops to Britain to train Ukrainian forces on how to use the 105mm L119 light gun. They would stay in the UK until the end of July.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had been asked to help teach Ukrainians to use the guns, and Defence Force personnel would remain in the UK throughout the training. Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short said 230 Ukrainians would be trained and each training session would take about one week. Ardern said no further training request had been made.
The L118 light gun was originally designed and produced in England for the British Army in the 1970s. It has since been widely exported, including to the United States, where a modified version is known as the “M119 howitzer”. The L118 uses the L19 ordnance on the L17 carriage. The L19 ordnance is slightly shorter than the L13 used by the Abbot and hence has a slightly shorter maximum range.