Military to speed buying as Afghan conflict intensifies
Canadian Press
HALIFAX — Canada's military will streamline a cumbersome buying system to ensure personnel are given modern equipment for the battle in Afghanistan, a senior bureaucrat promised Thursday.
Dan Ross, assistant deputy minister of materiel, told a defence industry audience in Halifax that he is the midst of a “transformation” of the military's purchasing arm, in part to buy hardware for troops fighting in Kandahar province.
Whether it be sensors to detect incoming rocket-propelled grenades from the Taliban or new medium-to-heavy lift helicopters needed to carry troops, the department is devising ways to buy equipment in as little as one third the traditional time.
“They (department staff) aren't dragging along the old process, the 15-year process,” Mr. Ross said during his speech, referring to the traditional period of time the military has required for major expenditures.
“We produce Treasury Board submissions and cabinet proposals over a long weekend and those things are hand-delivered through the system and they get pulled through,” he said.
In an interview following his speech, Mr. Ross said he expected major purchases to take less than five years from conception to first delivery.
He cited the $8-billion contract for C-17 Globemaster transports and Chinook medium-to-heavy lift choppers as an example of increased “off-the-shelf” buying by his department.
Under that system, DND announced Boeing Corp. had met its requirements, and other firms were invited to attempt to meet the same standards. The aerospace giant is expected to formally be awarded the contract next spring despite protests from competitors that the process is unfair.
Mr. Ross defended the practice, saying the choppers are urgently needed in missions such as Afghanistan, where Canadian troops currently are flown to combat zones by American aircraft.
Under the old DND procurement system, endless specifications were written and huge bureaucratic hurdles slowed the process, he told members of the Canadian Defence Security and Aerospace Exhibition Atlantic.
“I don't have to write a technical specification to Boeing to tell them how to build a C-17 or any other aircraft. They know how to do that,” he said.
Mr. Ross said the military is also identifying ways to protect troops in Afghanistan, including setting up an “active protection system” to ward off rocket-propelled grenades fired at armoured vehicles.
The vehicles are currently vulnerable to the grenades, which are a favourite weapon of the Taliban.
The new systems would sense the incoming grenades and set off a counter explosive to prevent the grenade from damaging the vehicle.
“That's an extremely high priority to us and we're going to pursue that very aggressively,” Mr. Ross said during his speech.
Mr. Ross also noted other potential purchases to help Afghanistan troops, including:
— Improved ballistic protection visors for helmets to prevent eye damage when roadside bombs explode;
— Advanced light-armoured weapon systems, which would allow infantry to destroy enemies up to 2.5 kilometres away;
— Improved unmanned aerial vehicles, including some equipped with weapons.
While some purchases are going smoothly, a key purchase of replacements for the geriatric Sea King helicopters could be facing a delay.
During a seminar later in the day, officials with Sikorsky Corp. said a strike at the company may affect the schedule for 28 maritime helicopters, known as Cyclones, due to start arriving in November 2008.
“We had a strike this year that cost us about eight weeks worth of employee work,” said Dan Hunter, project manager for Sikorsky, in an interview.
“We're working with DND to talk about the implications of that and how to mitigate that and still make our schedule.”
Michel Lapointe, the Defence Department's project manager for the chopper project, said his department will review whether it will extend the original deadline in light of the strike.
“Until then we don't know how long it's going to take or if there will be any impact,” he said.
Military procurement will see a massive ramping up in the next two or three years, said Mr. Ross.
He estimated that projects ranging from replacements of the aging fleet of Hercules transport planes to two new ships to carry troops and equipment will mean a doubling capital spending from current levels of over $1-billion to about $3-billion annually.
