Sergeant Hayden Smith, DSD, for services to the New Zealand Defence Force
Sergeant Hayden Smith has served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force since 2011 in the Communications and Information Systems trade and has served on a number of operations as a technician supporting data systems used by the New Zealand Defence Force nationally and internationally. Sergeant Smith has been involved in the Frigate Systems Upgrade project, designing and creating a dataflow capability that can support future planned intelligence collection capabilities by military units. This has been critical in operationalising the project and integrating $26 million worth of sensors with the wider New Zealand Defence Force, other government agencies and partner nations. He completed the majority of this work as a Corporal and personally solved a complex issue that partner nations were struggling to resolve with dedicated teams. Resolution of this issue has allowed the international intelligence community to share information with improved dataflow processes and the United Kingdom has subsequently adopted this capability. Sergeant Smith has provided positive outcomes at both national and international levels, enhancing the reputation of the New Zealand Defence Force and New Zealand.