The Defence Budget [superthread]

[Journeyman]

I know of one major formation that is facing a 40% reduction to its O+M (essentially training, and hence readiness) budget next fiscal year that will NOT suffer any significant reduction in readiness, simply by changing the way in which they train.

Would you flesh this out a bit? What are they changing?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Canada has similar problems.  I recall a mid 90s OAG report describing how we purchased aircraft spares from Canadian providers, who merely drop-shipped them from the US plants at a 50% or more mark-up.

The C7 is a slightly Canadianized M-16, for a more than slightly increased unit cost.  Similarly, the LSVW was nothing if not a regional economic award; and the less we say about CF-18 maintenance and Griffon acquisition, the better.  Discussions of Canadian ship-building lead one down the path of asking why we must buy from less efficient Canadian shipyards.

As long as DND has multi-billion dollar procurement budgets, it will attract political attention, and varying levels of pork.

The thing about shipyards is that they require new builds to reinvest in their significant amount of infrastructure. This was my concern about the BC shipyards not getting the ferry contracts. The shipyards here have built a good international rep for speedy and quality repairs, but that work is highly unpredictable and difficult to take to the bank for the capital required for reinvestment to maintain a competitive edge. So it really comes down to a policy decision, if you want shipyards capable of building or even repairing our naval fleet, you need to sustain them by restricting government new builds to domestic builders. if you are willing to give up that ability then accept the price that comes with it. Not only will your hulls come from somewhere else, but all the major repairs and refits will have to go outside the domestic marketplace.

 

[PPCLI Guy]

Would you flesh this out a bit? What are they changing?

The simplest change has been to return to training in austere conditions, using only issue kit, equipment and vehicles - in other words, to live within one's means vice renting our way out of the need to plan....

 

[Journeyman]

Ack. Thanks

 

[dapaterson]

The simplest change has been to return to training in austere conditions, using only issue kit, equipment and vehicles - in other words, to live within one's means vice renting our way out of the need to plan....

Heretic!  Next you'll say that deployed HQs for brigades need to be agile, responsive and mobile, not sprawling tent cities filled with a cast of thousands.

 

[OldSolduer]

The simplest change has been to return to training in austere conditions, using only issue kit, equipment and vehicles - in other words, to live within one's means vice renting our way out of the need to plan....

but but what about the troops and their IPads, IPhones, etc etc ....how are they supposed to call ? how will they upload their antics to Youtube? :'(

 

[Infanteer]

The simplest change has been to return to training in austere conditions, using only issue kit, equipment and vehicles - in other words, to live within one's means vice renting our way out of the need to plan....

One only has to play with a DTSF to see what impact light stands, generators, heaters and MSA have on the training bill.  Costs can easily be cut by 25% by living tactically and not in heated mod tents with electricity and lighting while deployed to the field.

 

[OldSolduer]

But we've always done it that way!! 

 

[cupper]

Actually, it's a good move. It will save huge amounts, as all of the reservists will release because field ex will no longer be fun and enjoyable, but rather will now just be work. >

 

[OldSolduer]

Actually, it's a good move. It will save huge amounts, as all of the reservists will release because field ex will no longer be fun and enjoyable, but rather will now just be work. >

We live austere most of the time. There is not enough time to build tent cities.

 

[cupper]

We live austere most of the time. There is not enough time to build tent cities.

Don't forget I came from a Combat Service Support background, where the union agreement required a lavish field lifestyle. ;D

 

[OldSolduer]

Don't forget I came from a Combat Service Support background, where the union agreement required a lavish field lifestyle. ;D

Seen!

 

[Edward Campbell]

Don't forget I came from a Combat Service Support background, where the union agreement required a lavish field lifestyle. ;D

It often makes good sense to make life/work as comfortable as possible for CSS elements when they are supporting another group that is being trained, but CSS elements need to be trained and tested, too, under realistic (hard) conditions. Sometimes CSS elements can be trained/tested while they are supporting others ~ maximum concurrent activity and all that.

 

[Edward Campbell]

More on cuts in this report which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/new-defence-chief-takes-helm-as-forces-look-to-cut-spending/article4716968/

New Defence Chief takes helm as forces look to cut spending

CAMPBELL CLARK
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

Published Sunday, Oct. 28 2012

The new Defence Chief will be welcomed with frugal pomp as he takes command of the Canadian Forces for an era of budgetary restraint.

Lieutenant-General Tom Lawson will be sworn in as General Lawson and appointed leader of Canada’s armed forces on Monday with a 21-gun salute, a ceremony presided over by the Governor-General, and a speech from the Prime Minister.

But the military has told its people not to travel to the event, and reports indicate officials are trying to ensure the ceremony’s price tag is smaller than the $250,000 spent when General Rick Hillier left command in 2008.

The shindig on a shaved budget symbolizes the very different job Gen. Lawson faces as Chief of the Defence Staff. His two most recent predecessors, Gen. Hillier and General Walt Natynczyk, were morale-boosting leaders of troops overseas. Gen. Lawson will have to mediate internal battles at home over resources.

“The priority is no longer operations. The priority is making the department more efficient, cutting the budget, or whatever the buzzword is,” said David Perry, a defence analyst with the CDA Institute. “It was Afghanistan and operations for a long time. Now it’s resource allocation.”

Gen. Lawson, who turns 55 on Friday, is a fighter pilot who flew Starfighters and CF-18s, but most of his career lacked that Top Gun flash. His star rose within the forces when, as a colonel, he was seen as having done a crack job as commander of Canada’s largest Air Force base in Trenton – a task that requires a deft administrator.

Both Gen. Hillier and Gen. Natynczyk, who steps down Monday, took the top post when military budgets were rising. Both took on the task of raising the spirits and profile of soldiers in Canada as they led a military that was operating in Afghanistan, and in Gen. Natynczyck’s case, Libya.

Gen. Lawson faces a different task. The budget cuts will strain the military’s ability to stay ready for a mission, and will likely see different branches battle over scarce funds.

Mr. Perry said the cuts already announced by the government amount to about 11 per cent of the military’s budget, and it will hit far deeper in a category of spending known as operations and maintenance.

The Canadian Forces are being told they cannot cut the numbers in its regular force, whose salaries are the military’s biggest expense. And it must preserve the military’s capital-spending plan to buy new planes, ships and other equipment – which is already underfunded.

So far, its ideas for cutting administration and civilian staff won’t generate enough savings, Mr. Perry said.

What’s left is the training and equipment tuneups that keep units ready to ship out, he said: “It means that the operational readiness is going to be reduced.”

The Harper government, however, has made it clear that it does not want the cuts to show in public. Defence Minister Peter MacKay repeatedly states that the defence budget has gone up every year under the Conservative government. But Mr. Perry said two recent rounds of cuts are going to have a substantial impact and in real terms the Forces won’t return to their pre-cut funding levels for eight or nine years.

Managing resources, especially money, is important and, as David Perry says, it has not been a high enough priority for some time. I remain unconvinced that DND has the will or even the skill to slice away at real, institutional fat - which exists - without cutting away a lot of muscle, too.

 

[McG]

Some reflections on the current situation from someone who has seen it (though maybe on a different scale) before:

Former defence chief 'sensitive' to new commander's fiscal challenge
John de Chastelain agrees there's not much fat to trim as Ottawa warns expenses must be reduced
The Guardian (Charlottetown)
Jim Day (jday@theguardian.pe.ca)
05 November 2012

John de Chastelain knows all about belt-tightening. He was Canada's chief of defence staff in 1989. The Cold War had ended. Canada faced a severe deficit. It was time for Ottawa to make cuts and the 1989 federal budget came down like a large axe on the Department of National Defence.

CFB Summerside, at the time home to anti-submarine and coastal patrol aircraft, was identified as a candidate for the chopping block. In 1991, the base was closed and the majority of military units were transferred to CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia.

De Chastelain fought unsuccessfully to keep Canadian forces stationed in Europe. Instead, those organizations were moved back to Canada and absorbed into a force that was already being reduced.

"We ended up closing a number of bases, including here in Prince Edward Island,'' said de Chastelain, who was guest speaker Saturday night at a fundraising dinner in Charlottetown for The Nichola Goddard Foundation that was created in honour of the first female soldier killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2006.

"I went to Summerside, in fact as chief of defence staff, to give the very sad news that we were going to be closing the base as we did in other places in Canada,'' he added.

"And it was very difficult because the people that had been working in those places had been working professionally and well. It was part of their life. Nobody wanted to have to do things like that and yet if we were to have met the limits placed on us, we had to do it.''

Canada's newly minted top military commander, Gen. Tom Lawson, has also been told trimming will take place under his command.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a clear message to the military last Monday as Lawson replaced retiring general Walt Natynczyk as chief of defence staff.

"The Forces will also be subject to the same pressures that the uncertainties of the global economy have imposed across our government and around the world,'' the prime minister told a gathering of the senior military leadership at the war museum in Ottawa.

"In order to free up resources to carry out work on the ground, administrative expenses have to be reduced.''

De Chastelain, who attended the change of command ceremony Monday, says he is "sensitive to what Tom is going through.''

He agrees with Lawson's assessment that there's not much fat to cut, particularly when it comes to combat units.

"The difficulty is that having made the cuts that we did 20 years ago, there are not too many bases you can close now,'' said de Chastelain.  "There are no troops to withdraw from Europe now. And we do have these capital acquisition programs - new ships and new aircraft - coming up. So, yeah, it's going to be tough.''

De Chastelain is hopeful the Canadian Forces will be able to continue to carry on out of area operations for a reasonable period of time, rather than simply set up a headquarters and then leave the work to others, which Canada has had to do before, he notes, with UN operations in the Middle East and Lebanon.

His major concern in 1989 through 1991 was, with all of the cuts the Defence Department was undergoing, to maintain the basis for combat capability for land, sea and air.

"We had to keep that in place so that if required we could build rapidly on it,'' he said.  "Once you do away with something entirely, it's very hard to get it back.''

De Chastelain says the most notable strength of Canada's military today, without question, is professionalism.

When he was still in uniform, NATO members constantly raved about Canada's system of training officers in all three branches of service as being extraordinary.

"And therefore I think that is one of our greatest attributes: the fact that we have very professional men and women in the Forces because we train and we train for the hard tasks and we equip for the hard tasks,'' he said. "And I think that must be maintained at all costs.''

 

[blacktriangle]

250k for Gen Hillier's change of command parade? Not knowing the exact breakdown of what went on, I can't comment too much...but it is does seem like a fair chunk of change for a change of command ceremony.

 

[Sythen]

250k for Gen Hillier's change of command parade? Not knowing the exact breakdown of what went on, I can't comment too much...but it is does seem like a fair chunk of change for a change of command ceremony.

Wonder how much of that was things like soldier's salaries and such that would be paid regardless? When media report numbers, they always like to include stuff like that.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

All change of command parades will consist of the oldest Cpl kicking the Commander's butt with a frozen mukluk out the door.  iper:

 

[McG]

Wonder how much of that was things like soldier's salaries and such that would be paid regardless? When media report numbers, they always like to include stuff like that.

Given that the media tends to report what we account as the costs, probably none of that was Reg F pay.  There might be Class A P Res pay if the reserves provided some contingent or if reserve senior leadership attended as guests.  Another chunk would be travel, meals, hotels and incidentals for out-of-town military & public service dignitaries.

In any case, that event is a well past sunk cost and it sounds like we (the CF) learned to keep costs more in check this time around (including asking all those out-of-towers to stay home).  I think what is more relevant now is the question of how do we move forward, cutting costs while protecting operational readiness.

 

[Wookilar]

One only has to play with a DTSF to see what impact light stands, generators, heaters and MSA have on the training bill.  Costs can easily be cut by 25% by living tactically and not in heated mod tents with electricity and lighting while deployed to the field.

I have been pondering this for awhile. It seems that every few years our power requirements go up a couple notches. Not because we necessarily need the power, but because the power is available.

The amount of money we spend on power generation is astounding, especially if you look at the CA as a whole. It was not that long ago that we had one 20KW gennie (1954 Cat in-line 8 cyl by the way) powering C/S's 0, 8, 88, the UMS, the kitchen and the mess tent at 1 VP. That was only 10-12 years ago.

Now, every C/S has a 10KW generator at a minimum. There is no way that 8 needs anything above a 2KW to run the radios and computers. Even a 5KW is more than enough to power everything in the CP along with a heater or two if required. Last EX I was on with 1 VP, there were two 10KW gennies running C/S 8. It had nothing to do with the radios or computers (computers draw very little power by the way) or even the 1 vacan that they were running.

I'm trying to figure out a way to do a power audit for a 1st line unit; what they would require on a Roto 0 type environment. I think higher would be shocked at how much electricity a Bn needs vs what we can generate.

I can't be the only one that wonders everytime I walk into a CP know and think "What is all this for?" If I see one more fancy hot fluid making machine I'm going to lose my tiny mind. And do we really need smart boards? Really? And "field deployable tv" with their own pelican cases? Really?

I am certainly not against using equipment/power for comfort's sake and some M&W items. By all means. One tv in the kitchen tent worked for along time, why doesn't it work now?

I think know we could see a substantial cost savings if we had a power....I don't know....reconciliation (?).