Re: ON TARGET

by Wolverine Mon 07 Oct 2019, 5:21 pm

ON TARGET: Canada's looming federal election leaves questions

10.07.2019

https://www.thewesternstar.com/opinion/regional-perspectives/on-target-canadas-looming-federal-election-leaves-questions-360993/

by **Oliver** Tue 09 Feb 2021, 11:56 am

GENERAL VANCE’S MESSY EXIT

February 8, 2021
By Scott Taylor

What a difference two weeks can make in the cut-throat world of Ottawa politics. On 14 January General Jonathan Vance officially stepped down as Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff and handed the reins to Admiral Art McDonald. Vance capped off a 38-year military career with a five-plus year tenure as top soldier, the longest CDS stint in Canadian history.

Immediately upon assuming the CDS post in 2015, Vance stood up Operation Honour, an initiative aimed at wiping out rampant sexual misconduct in the ranks.

The genesis for Op Honour dates back to 2013 when there had been a damning string of sexual misconduct incidents reported in the media. In a damage control exercise the Department of National Defence commissioned an independent inquiry headed by former Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps.

After a thorough investigation, Deschamps tabled her report which depicted the CAF to be steeped in a highly masculine sexualized culture, wherein military leaders turned a blind eye to misconducts.

It was in response to the Deschamp’s findings that newly minted CDS Vance launched his two pronged assault on the problem. In addition to clamping down on the perpetrators, Op Honour was to simultaneously establish a support network for the victims.

Despite the tough talking rhetoric Vance’s vaunted Op Honour made nary a dent in the military’s existing culture.

As a result, last November Vance launched a second initiative to confront what senior brass still referred to as a ‘wicked problem’ of sexual misconduct in the ranks.

This most recent plan is called ‘The Path Towards Dignity and Respect.’ In his written foreword to this plan, Vance admitted “There are no quick fixes for achieving culture change. It requires sustained effort and continual assessment to ensure we remain on track.”

Vance echoed those same sentiments in a lengthy pre-retirement television interview with Global National’s Mercedes Stephenson.

Keen eyed readers who closely follow the Canadian defence sector will recall that it was Stephenson, then working at CTV, who first announced unofficially that Vance would replace outgoing CDS General Tom Lawson back in 2015. It would be more than six weeks before Vance’s appointment was indeed made ‘official.’

Acknowledging what has been a long, close working association Vance closed out his interview by thanking Stephenson for “covering the Canadian Forces so faithfully.”

Thus it came as somewhat of a shock on 2 February when Stephenson dropped the bombshell that Vance himself – the architect behind Op Honour – was being accused of having inappropriate relations with lower ranked female military staff.

Stephenson’s initial story was that Vance had an ongoing relationship with a subordinate dating back to 2001, which continued through his tenure as CDS until January 2021.

Another allegation was that in 2012, Vance, then a Major-General had been asked by a female corporal for some career advice. A reply from Vance’s email address allegedly proposed that the corporal join him on a clothing optional beach vacation.

The Global National scoop was soon picked up by all the mainstream media and the revelations set off a chain reaction.

Within hours of the story breaking it was announced that the military police were opening an investigation into Vance’s alleged actions, and with uncharacteristic institutional speed, CDS Art McDonald stated that the CAF will initiate a separate independent investigation.

What was shocking about this whole affair was that it turned out not to be a shock for the senior political leadership.

It turns out that the second allegation was brought to the attention of the Canadian Forces Ombudsman who in turn notified Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in 2018.

Although Sajjan was admittedly ‘concerned’ enough to inform the Privy Council Office (PCO), those concerns did not result in any concrete actions being taken.

So while he was CDS and the public face of Op Honour, Vance was given a free pass by Canada’s political leadership on allegations regarding his own relations with female military staff. The minute he steps out of his uniform everyone cannot wait to be seen taking actions against him.

I’m not suggesting in any way that Vance should be let off the hook if there is any truth to the allegations, but it would seem the problem goes even higher than him.

ON TARGET

by Covert Wed 14 Jun 2023, 8:54 am

WHY IS THE RCAF NOT EQUIPPED TO FIGHT WILDFIRES?

June 13, 2023

By Scott Taylor

As a resident of Canada’s capital, I can admit that the nationwide wildfire crisis suddenly became all too real last week.

A thick smoke haze engulfed Ottawa and much of southern Ontario for several days, prompting health advisories.

Pollution levels literally went off the charts with experts estimating that citizens were exposed to 100 to 200 times the normal range of pollutants.

The prevailing wind currents resulted in most of the eastern U.S. seaboard being blanketed with the same thick pall of smoke.

New York was the hardest hit city, and residents were quick to blame Canada by jokingly referring to the haze as the ‘Eh’pocalypse.

As an emergency stop-gap measure, firefighters have been brought in from France, South Africa and the USA to help provincial authorities to battle the still out of control wildfires.

There is no federal agency tasked with fighting these fires, but in some cases provincial governments have requested assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces.

This support will come mainly from the army in the form of actual firefighters on the ground, with the air force providing some emergency airlift of endangered citizens.

The reason for this is that in a country that boasts 362 million hectares of forest – the third largest in the world – our air force is not equipped for, nor tasked with fighting forest fires.

The even crazier part of this equation is that Canadian aerospace industries have historically produced one of the world’s most effective water bombers. Originally built by Canadair, the CL-415 was nicknamed the ‘Super Scooper’ when it first flew in 1993.

A twin-engine propeller plane, the CL-415 was custom designed to allow it to refill with water from lakes near the targeted forest fire, by skimming the surface. This allows the CL-415 far more time on station near the blaze rather than having to return to an actual airfield.

Following Canadair, Bombardier subsequently built the ‘415’ and then in turn it was De Haviland Canada that produced these water bombers.

In October 2016 the CL-415 programme was acquired by the Victoria, BC based Viking Air.

Their aim is to modernize the existing design into what will be renamed the DHC-515 Firefighter, which will be produced at a plant in Calgary.

Spread across Canada, there are approximately 64 of the CL-415 aircraft employed by private companies and provincial governments.

International users of this ‘Firefighter’ are almost all foreign air forces; Croatia, Greece, Indonesia, Morocco, Portugal and Spain just to name a few.

Which begs the question, why is the RCAF not responsible for fighting forest fires?

As we are currently witnessing, these wildfires pay no need to provincial boundaries.

Our forests are a valuable natural resource; worth I daresay, as much protection as our international borders.

We are barely into this year’s wildfire season and it is already one of the most destructive on record. The research indicates that things will only worsen with time. The changes in climate create warmer, drier conditions, increased drought and a longer wildfire season.

For much of North America, projections show that an annual average increase in temperature by 1 degree Celsius will result in an increase in the median burn area by as much as 600% in some forests.

If this is the new reality then Canada needs to act now.

If the threat was of a military nature we would have to find the will and the means to mobilize the necessary resources. Instead, Canada is battling the forces of nature.

However, this is also an opportunity for Canada to shift the focus of our military – particularly our air force – to protecting our resources and by extension Canadians health and welfare as well.

A huge investment in Canadian aerospace to build an iconic Canadian designed water bomber should be a popular one.

In re-rolling the RCAF to be the lead agency in combating wildfires, perhaps this would provide the genesis to create a true Air Reserve located at airfields all across the country.

Pilots and crews could be part-time reservists with legislation to protect their jobs when mobilized for active service.

Dropping loads of water on forest fires may not be as exciting as the prospect of engaging Russian fighter jets in a dog fight, but it would still be a hell of a lot more challenging than flying a cargo plane for a courier service.

It would also be great public relations for the Canadian military to have waterbombers bedecked in RCAF markings battling fires to save forests and remote communities.

As the fight against wildfires is seasonally hemispheric, if Canada was to possess such a potent firefighting resource as a 515 Firefighter equipped Air Wing of the RCAF, during our winter they could be deployed into the southern hemisphere.

Think of the international goodwill such support could earn for Canada- just as we are currently thankful to the French, South African and American firefighters here in Canada to help us get through the current crisis.

The threat of increased wildfires is real. The time to act is now.

ON TARGET

by Zapper Thu 21 Dec 2023, 2:43 pm

CANADIAN ARMED FORCES BY THE NUMBERS

December 19, 2023

By Scott Taylor

As we fast approach the end of 2023, it is a natural milestone to reflect on the state of the Canadian Armed Forces.

How did they fare in the previous 12 months and what we can expect in 2024 and beyond?

The most objective manner in which to access the Canadian military is by the numbers, and spoiler alert, those numbers are not good.

One of the most crippling statistics is that the CAF are presently 16,500 personnel short of a combined regular and reserve strength of 115,000.

This represents a nearly 15 per cent shortfall in trained personnel. To put that into context, the Pentagon considers any unit which suffers 10 per cent casualties in battle to be hors-d’combat (aka out of action).

The commander of the Royal Canadian Navy, Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee, recently released a video message in which he admits that Canada’s navy will be unable to fulfill their mission objectives in the near future.

There is also a crippling shortage of trained pilots in the RCAF which has resulted in the cancelling of Canadian participation in joint foreign exercises.

The Canadian Army recently acknowledged that it will need $220 million worth of equipment to simply replace those weapons and vehicles which Canada has already donated to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ammunition is one item in particularly short supply as a result of our contribution to the war in Ukraine. At a recent briefing to Parliament, Chief of Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre bemoaned the fact that there is only three day’s worth of ammunition left in Canadian magazines based on an expenditure rate commensurate with what we observe in Ukraine.

The $26.5 billion allocated to Canada’s defence budget only represents 1.3 per cent of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The usual tub-thumpers bemoan the fact that this remains well below the NATO Alliance’s stated goal of two per cent of GDP spent on defence.

However, the truth is that DND is so woefully mismanaged and under strength that Canada does not even spend that full $26.5 billion.

As a result of project delays, some $2 billion of procurement money went unspent last year, and the shortfall in personnel saved taxpayers more than $1 billion in salaries and benefits.

Recruiting remains a challenge despite the 2023 change in dress regulations which now allows all hairstyles, facial hair, tattoos, piercings and choice of gender uniform items.

Of course a major impediment to those considering a career in uniform has been the steady stream of negative news reports about widespread sexual misconduct. Again, the numbers don’t lie and they only got worse in 2023.

The most recent numbers released by Statistics Canada reveal that in 2022, despite the barrage of media reports and widespread public scrutiny, the number of reported cases of sexual assault actually increased.

An estimated 1,960 regular force members – or roughly 3.5 percent, “reported that they were sexually assaulted in the military workplace or outside the workplace in an incident that involved CAF or other military members in the 12 months preceding the survey” the Statistics Canada report stated.

A would be recruit considering a 30-year career can do the math, calculate that this amounts to a 100 per cent chance of being sexually assaulted at some point and politely decline the military’s offer of employment.

Unfortunately, without a major uptake in recruiting and training to bring the CAF back to full strength, the coming year will be a steep challenge.

The RCN will be taking delivery of more ships, while they cannot put the ones they have to sea for want of trained crew members.

The Canadian Army is to increase the forward deployed battle group in Latvia to the status of full brigade while lacking ammunition for training and still awaiting the acquisition of a low-level air defence system.

The first of the newly purchased F-35 Strike Fighters is due for delivery in 2026, with a total of 88 being received by 2029.

Somehow the RCAF will need to keep their aging CF-18 Hornets operational while transitioning to this next generation fighter. Again this will require a major turn around in recruiting and training to keep apace with current attrition.

As the old recruiting ads used to say about the CAF --“There’s no life like it.”

ON TARGET

by **OutlawSoldier** Wed 17 Apr 2024, 6:26 am

ON TARGET: CANADA'S DEFENCE POLICY UPDATE: SEEING WILL BE BELIEVING

April 15, 2024
By Scott Taylor

On Monday April 8, Minister of National Defence Bill Blair unveiled the Liberal government's long awaited Defence Policy Update (DPU). Titled 'Our North, Strong and Free' the new policy outlines a significant spending increase and promises to acquire some very specific new capabilities and equipment for the Canadian Armed Forces.

“Through this policy, Canada will invest $8.1 billion over the next five years and $73 billion over the next 20 years in our national defence,” Blair stated in the DPU.

In terms of equipment acquisitions, the DPU shopping list includes; early warning aircraft, tactical helicopters and new long range missiles for the Army.

The government plans to buy specialized maritime sensors to improve ocean surveillance as well as build a new satellite ground station in the Arctic. The DPU blueprint includes plans to establish additional support facilities in the Arctic for military operations. Also referenced, albeit without detail, is a new fleet of submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy.

There will be a major investment in domestic ammunition production to replace those stocks of artillery shells which Canada donated to Ukraine. Having learned their lesson from that war, Canada also plans to significantly increase the Army's strategic reserve of ammunition.

Due to the numerous delays to the Canadian Surface Combatant program a large sum of money has been set aside to keep the RCN's aging Halifax-class frigates operational until the new Type 26 destroyers eventually enter service.

With a nod to the fact that the modern battlefield is evolving into new domains, the DPU focussed on improving the CAF’s ability to conduct cyber operations. The government plans to establish a Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command. Also to be pursued, is a joint cyber operations capability with the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) Canada's secretive, Ottawa-based electronic intelligence gathering organization.

While not as sexy as the wish list of futuristic weaponry and spy gizmos, the DPU also set aside increased funding to address the construction of affordable housing for military personnel. That was about the only item to address the most pressing issue which is currently crippling the CAF: the combined retention failure/recruiting shortfalls which have resulted in woefully depleted ranks.

You can buy all the weaponry in the world, but it will be useless if there is no one left in uniform to use it.

As for what all this will mean for the actual future of the CAF, a few polite reminders might help put things in perspective. First of all, this DPU was initially announced by the Liberal government back on April 7, 2022 as an 'urgent' necessity in the immediate aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That was nearly two years to the day before they actually tabled this DPU. That is not an 'urgent' response in any universe.

At the DPU technical briefing last Monday, it was confirmed that prior to making the details public in Canada, Minister Blair had first briefed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to get his blessing. Apparently Blair also pre-briefed US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen. Those who follow Canadian military affairs closely will be well aware that both NATO and the US have been pressuring Canada to increase defence spending to the NATO alliance target of 2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This new DPU projects a massive increase from Canada's current annual defence budget of $30 billion to a staggering $50 billion by the end of this decade. However, thanks to Canada's robust economy that will only put us at the 1.76 per cent GDP mark. In other words, closer but still no cigar from Stoltenberg.

Perhaps the most important detail to remember is that this is a projected 20-year plan, which is unlikely to survive any change in government. To coin the old phrase 'I'll believe it when I see it'.

ON TARGET

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