I'll believe it when I see it.
Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending
- Thread starter Maxman1
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"Canada.... I see you've made it to 2%, but can you explain some of these new expenditures? Like......item 386?"
"It's a paramilitary force..."
"Branch 684 RCL Ladies Auxiliary?"
"Yes."
"It's a paramilitary force..."
"Branch 684 RCL Ladies Auxiliary?"
"Yes."
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Oh, ye of little faith.
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Cybersecurity, not NATO defence spending, dominates defence minister's keynote CANSEC speech
As part of efforts to modernize this country's armed forces, Canada will establish a cross-border cybersecurity certification program meant to streamline and protect the defence supply chain.
nationalpost.com
Some thoughts about how they can get to 2% without breaking the bank so to say?
Yes, move the Coast Guard into the envelope.
Perhaps move hydrographic science into the budget?
NavCan? Is there room to move some of that into National Defence?
CSE - cybersecurity is already getting a boost and that is an easy out-of-sight / out-of-mind management issue for the public. And the fact that it is being sold as the price of getting US and NATO equipment contracts is also useful.
WRT contracts - that is also where I see GM Defense's opportunity. The US has already done the selection for us on the ISV which leaves the door open for us to repeat the LAV experience and start producing Colorados and Silverados in Oshawa for their ISV programme and our LUV/ATMP/LVM(L) programmes. Other opportunities are satellites, radars, arctic navigation and comms, refurbishing arctic runways, hangars and air traffic management. Arctic docking facilities. Subsidizing Transport companies to buy militarily useful transport.
All of that is dual purpose military/civil spending.
Similar thinking on the Foreign Aid budget. Some of that budget could be double-hatted/obfuscated by spending more of it on Foreign Military Aid such as that being supplied to Ukraine now along with the reconstruction funds.
So far all I am proposing is shunting existing money from one envelope to another envelope and no new money. Nothing there that the CAF can count on to improve their situation beyond improvement in the operating environment perhaps.
One way the Government can plump up the books that would help the CAF is on the capital side by immediately "doubling" the capital expenditure which currently, I believe, sits somewhere around 15% of the Estimates (+/- a few percent). That would move the dial from 1.3% of GDP to about 1.5% of GDP. And a lot of it could be supplied from funds already earmarked for future budgets and funds deferred from past budgets The bigger issue, as everybody here is aware, is not the pledging of the money. It is the actual spending of the money already allocated.
But I think I heard a voice muttering some days/weeks ago that there were plans afoot to simplify/modify procurement? Would be nice.....
Also, capital expenditures can be plumped up in the short term but need not be repeated in the long term. Once this latest "panic" is over those modernized fleets may have to last another two decades with no maintenance before the next "panic" causes them to be renewed.
Consumables, like missiles, shells and small arms, have suddenly become commodities. Buying shells is almost as good as buying gold. You can use them or donate them or trade them. Even if it is just internal trade from National Defence to Global Affairs for Foreign Aid.
Pumping up production for Diemaco in Kitchener and GDOTS in Quebec would be an election win.
Getting Rheinmetall Quebec to supply the GBADS would also be a win and an in-scope expenditure.
Foremost Calgary getting the DAME-Bandvagon contract along with Viking-DHC getting the Twin Otter contract couldn't hurt electoral prospects either.
F-35s, P8s, RPAS, perhaps MCDVs swapped for OPVs along with the AOPVs (now the original 8 if the two that were bought for the CCG came back into the fold with the CCG being added to the National Defence budget) and some of the CSCs swapped for subs?
Could the CCG also get a budget for some new ships with transport capabilities that would serve arctic communities? I believe the CCG already serves some of them (at least one of them)
The biggest problem seems to me, to be not how creative the accountants can become and how flexible with the rules the bureaucrats can become, or even how generous the politicians can become but how do you find the people to fill the slots that are already in the budget?
The one thing you will find missing from my suggestions is an Armoured Division, or even a Brigade. That is intentional.
That is Foreign Equipment bought with money that will be spent overseas to meet Foreign Commitments and will be manned by Canadians spending their blood for Foreign Causes. And that is the hardest sell.
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In fact - what would happen if Emergency Preparedness were folded into National Defence as a third agency alongside the CAF and the CSE?
A separate Orange Force alongside the Green Force? Move the Coast Guard, the Rangers and Yellow Fleets under one command along with the volunteers and auxilliaries and NGOs like the Red Cross, St. John's and the various SAR groups? Expand the Forest Fire expenditures in Public Private Partnerships - bring ConAir and PAL into the fold....
Pulling those together, along with new, politically acceptable money, could free up existing CAF money for Green duties instead of Orange duties. Move the Cormorants and Griffons to the Orange Force, along with some of the Hercs and buy Venoms, Chinooks and Blackhawks for the Green Force.
A separate Orange Force alongside the Green Force? Move the Coast Guard, the Rangers and Yellow Fleets under one command along with the volunteers and auxilliaries and NGOs like the Red Cross, St. John's and the various SAR groups? Expand the Forest Fire expenditures in Public Private Partnerships - bring ConAir and PAL into the fold....
Pulling those together, along with new, politically acceptable money, could free up existing CAF money for Green duties instead of Orange duties. Move the Cormorants and Griffons to the Orange Force, along with some of the Hercs and buy Venoms, Chinooks and Blackhawks for the Green Force.
daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
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Usually, government emergency preparedness organizations are the last refuge for those unwanted anywhere else, and have anemic budgets and 'tool boxes' to match, reflecting the 'Likelihood/Consequence' levels of such national level emergencies e.g., not very likely, mostly low consequence (unless you pay attention to the media).
On that basis, the DND/CAF would likely be a great refuge for that Island of Misfit Toys
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Usually, government emergency preparedness organizations are the last refuge for those unwanted anywhere else, and have anemic budgets and 'tool boxes' to match, reflecting the 'Likelihood/Consequence' levels of such national level emergencies e.g., not very likely, mostly low consequence (unless you pay attention to the media).
On that basis, the DND/CAF would likely be a great refuge for that Island of Misfit Toys
Thing is Mendocino's Public Safety Department is already taking on many of the responsibilities that other countries cover with "Defence" agencies.
And I include the US and its National Guard structures as well as the Civil Response capabilities included in most European defence budgets. Or for that matter places like Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Public Safety could end up with two broad budgets -
Policing - RCMP, CBSA, Corrections and CSIS
National Defence - CAF, CSE and Emergency Preparedness.
Or perhaps CSIS and CSE should go into a third budget of their own - Intelligence - along with satellites and a Global Affairs intelligence cell.
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Colin Parkinson
Army.ca Myth
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Start rebuilding single PMQ's into duplexes?
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Maxman1
Army.ca Veteran
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Or build apartments and more rowhouses?
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Crazy talk! It’s not like the extra 15,000
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He's probably trying to figure out how to roll aid to Ukraine into the equation.
markppcli
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In other news, and shocking no one. We’re bleeding people and can’t get more in.
www.westernstandard.news
Military recruitment down 35%, blames tight labour market
Military recruitment experienced a significant decline of 35% last year, according to records. royal military college According to Blacklock’s Reporter, a fede
daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
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In other news, and shocking no one. We’re bleeding people and can’t get more in.
Military recruitment down 35%, blames tight labour market
Military recruitment experienced a significant decline of 35% last year, according to records. royal military college According to Blacklock’s Reporter, a fede
We're not alone, in case that's of any comfort...
ADDRESSING THE U.S. MILITARY RECRUITING CRISIS
During the first years of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many military experts worried that the constant deployments would “break” the force since they expected that fewer young Americans would volunteer to serve in a wartime military. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Yet a perilous recruiting crisis began just after the United States fully withdrew from Afghanistan last summer, and it shows no sign of abating anytime soon. As a result, the U.S. military is shrinking, not because of any strategic choices, but simply because there aren’t enough qualified volunteers — and that may have enormous implications for the U.S. strategic position in an increasingly uncertain and dangerous world.
How bad is the recruiting crisis? During the last fiscal year, the Army missed its recruiting goal by 15,000 active-duty soldiers, or 25 percent of its target. This shortfall forced the Army to cut its planned active-duty end strength from 476,000 to 466,000. And the current fiscal year is likely to be even worse. Army officials project that active end strength could shrink by as much as 20,000 soldiers by September, down to 445,000. That means that the nation’s primary land force could plummet by as much as 7 percent in only two years — at a time when its missions are increasing in Europe and even in the Pacific, where the Army provides many of the critical wartime theater enablers without which the other services cannot function.
Addressing the U.S. Military Recruiting Crisis - War on the Rocks
The all-volunteer force may finally have reached its breaking point. During the first years of the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many military
warontherocks.com
Brad Sallows
Army.ca Legend
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Right now everyone seems to be convinced that they aren't earning enough money, and that they could make more somewhere else. Obviously that can't simultaneously be true for everyone.
markppcli
Army.ca Veteran
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I think the number one issue is our recruiting time line. You aren’t going to have quality people waiting for a year to get an offer, especially with what a private makes. Then when they do get in, at least in the combat arms, they’ll be massively underwhelmed by the “challenge” offered to them through the training process and arrive at their units feeling like they can’t contribute. What a joy.
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