MarkOttawa said:
FSTO: While the Conservatives could not be worse than the Liberals I just look for some intelligent policy and some real money. Neither yet.
In the budget? Some money for some equipment for some service.
See: "What will be in the budget?"
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2006/05/what-will-be-in-budget_02.html
We have a son (pilot) in the Air Force which may lead to a certain service bias on my part. As far as I can tell--as a civilian, though I hope informed by my own life-long interest and reading, nothing untoward from our son--this is the best CF site of this sort on which to discuss the issues.
Just wanting the best,
Mark
Ottawa
Fair enough, but please remember that during the election, the conservatives would not (somebody from NDHQ please correct me if I'm wrong) be able to get direct advice from DND to make a Defence election platform. Therefore they rely on advice from retired DND pers who may have the best intentions but their intel is very time late. That is probably why you see the confrontation (media drivin IMO) between O'Conner and Hillier. Now that they are in Government, their intel is now more time relevent and a few things (Deep water port, RR Battalions all over the place) have somewhat fallen off the radar screen. So I feel that there will be some more fleshing out of the capital purchase program over the next while. Also the money is there, for example at the end of this past fiscal year we had the usual March Madness to spend our budget but the one thing that never happened was the claw back in November followed by the flood of cash in March. This year we have been told that there will be no claw-back and we can plan to spend throughout the fiscal year.
As for equipment, I can see the 4-6 C-17's plus a FWSAR and some new C-130J. With the C-17 we can move large loads quickly to Oman to flown the rest of the way by Hercs, saving both hrs and trips on both planes. Is your son Fast Air or a Bus jockey? cause ask any of us who have flown a Herc from coast to coast (I have only flown in one from Montreal to Halifax and that was long enough) it is not a pleasent trip.
The Army? I am not qualified to comment.
The Navy?
JSS (4 min-2 on each coast)
Ampib Ship (no, the JSS and Hillier's BHS are NOT the same thing)
Frigate Update
Replace the 280's
Mid-life refit on MCDV
Cyclone's (These should be completly taken over by the Navy, they are a Navy asset after all)
Update the CP 140 (see my comment from above)
Above all get the 23,000 ( which means 69,000 people actually signed up because it take a 3-1 ratio to go from sign-up to QL3 Qualified)
If that means that we have to take a bunch of of just retired folks and give them a Class B or C reserve contract and make them full time instructors until the bubble is through.
There, Don's unscolicited advice for the day.