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Government hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

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I have long said that you could fund the CAF to 4 percent of GDP, but we would still lag behind in NATO and be much the same where we are.

It's never the money, it's politics. It's procedures. It's the pork-barreling in our defence spending that makes us a paper tiger in NATO.

My only hope in all of this for the CAF and the GoC, whatever the political stripe that may be, is that it will rouse them out of the "Peace Dividend" slumber. The world has been unstable since 1945. We have used geography, proximity, and association as a Defence Policy ever since. ICBMs don't care how close to the U.S. or how far from Russia/China we are.

Don't give us a dime more, but let us spend money on defence like it matters. The fact we follow the same rules for purchasing a fighter aircraft as we do for buying office furniture for a Service Canada office is disgraceful. Don't treat defense procurement as a stimulus package for Canadian Industry. There I said it.

We spend so much money, time, and effort trying to get that money to stay in Canada; be it by awarding contracts to companies with no capability to produce items without first "retooling" and"developing the production lines", or by hamstringing perfectly competent and competitive bidders by forcing the project to be made in St. Margaret de Poutain de Champignon, QC because the ruling government either lost the seat in the election, or won it with promises.

We spend so much money and staff hours jumping through TBS regulations that are great for other departments, but are terrible for defence procurement. Some items you have to sole source, because there are technologies and capabilities no one else makes. By doing the bid process, you get companies clamoring for a project they can't deliver on, but because they tick the bright boxes on the score sheet....

I truly and honestly belief we need to split from PSPC and legislate that its not beholden to TBS, only to the PBO/PCO. The guiding principles of this new Defence Procurement department should be "Off the shelf, from somewhere else" if there isn't an industry in Canada.

BOOTFORGEN has demonstrated how well we do when we are able to actually get what we need, instead of lining the pockets of a Canadian company that got lucky.

That, but with tanks, fighters, ships, weapons systems....
 
Meh, the trade schooling can remain the same. All that changes is that you stay working in one environment and/or move to truly purple roles throughout your career. The RCAF /RCN would have no issues as they do their environmental courses internal to them. It is only the CA that decided that the environmental skills for non-CA managed trades need to be downloaded onto units to solve.

In any case we do it already for the largest officer trade without issue. I find it silly we will promote a purple NCO and send them off to a environment they have never worked in and expect them to thrive in that environment in leadership posns while learning how to work in the field/ship/hotel (see what I did there). We don't send RCN/RCAF DEU LOGOs to a Svc Bn for their command time, so why screw over our NCOs?

Before @dapaterson chimes in about ratios and ranks, yes there will have to be some re-balancing of DEU and ranks. No one has ever quantified it and senior leadership give mealy mouth responses when pressed on the issue but if there ever was a time to orient properly it is now.
Pre-unification the Met school in Trenton taught RCN, RCAF, and CA Met personnel. It could be done that way again, and would then give the elements ownership over the people employed in their lines.

It would also help NCMs with succession management, and prevent situations where a CA DEU member might spend their career never serving in a CA unit. Or in the case of my BMQ MS, a sailor that never served with the RCN.

You don't stand much of a chance for succession management if you have no experience in the elemental DEU that you wear. As some of the CA and RCN DEU Met Techs are about to find out in 5-10 years.
 
Yeah if Ukraine has shown anything, we need to have deep stocks in a conflict, 10,000 min, same for LVM, triple ERC etc. Not just road to 2% but to get out units kitted properly
We should at least buy what we need. Could we support a continual build line in Canada for the logistics fleet?
500 Heavy
2900 Medium
1000 Light
somewhere around 5000 trucks minimum probably, although replacing the original
1212 Heavy
2900 Medium
2879 Light
so maybe 7000 max
I think the PACCAR plant does around 10000 a year in medium duty trucks
Could they supply all the trucks?
Even on a 10 year cycle its only 600 a year and to diverse a product from a manufacturing standpoint?
 
We should at least buy what we need. Could we support a continual build line in Canada for the logistics fleet?
500 Heavy
2900 Medium
1000 Light
somewhere around 5000 trucks minimum probably, although replacing the original
1212 Heavy
2900 Medium
2879 Light
so maybe 7000 max
I think the PACCAR plant does around 10000 a year in medium duty trucks
Could they supply all the trucks?
Even on a 10 year cycle its only 600 a year and to diverse a product from a manufacturing standpoint?
5000 light (ISV or LUV
3000 Heavy
3000 Medium (find a real medium option too not the medium you have now)
1000 Arctic Mobility Vehicle (BV type of thing)

Replace every 5 years to cascading war stock.
 
Pre-unification the Met school in Trenton taught RCN, RCAF, and CA Met personnel. It could be done that way again, and would then give the elements ownership over the people employed in their lines.

It would also help NCMs with succession management, and prevent situations where a CA DEU member might spend their career never serving in a CA unit. Or in the case of my BMQ MS, a sailor that never served with the RCN.

You don't stand much of a chance for succession management if you have no experience in the elemental DEU that you wear. As some of the CA and RCN DEU Met Techs are about to find out in 5-10 years.
Sure but why? They should leave the Met school ready to do their Met job and the environment gets them ready to work in the environment (can happen before/after trades trg).

In smaller trades, they may have to take more than one environmental course over thier careers. That already occurs so no real change.
 
Sure but why? They should leave the Met school ready to do their Met job and the environment gets them ready to work in the environment (can happen before/after trades trg).

In smaller trades, they may have to take more than one environmental course over thier careers. That already occurs so no real change.
That's what I was arguing for.

Back in the day, the RCN Met folks trained in Trenton, then went to the fleet. The CA Met folks trained in Trenton, then went to the guns. The RCAF Met folks trained in Trenton, and went on to ruin the occupation with their ridiculously myopic focus on air silliness...
 
That's what I was arguing for.

Back in the day, the RCN Met folks trained in Trenton, then went to the fleet. The CA Met folks trained in Trenton, then went to the guns. The RCAF Met folks trained in Trenton, and went on to ruin the occupation with their ridiculously myopic focus on air silliness...
I mean if they can do NETP/BMQ-L/Hotelcheckin(kidding) without any infra or other resources then sure. If not teach 'em met stuff and let the environment(s) take care of their business
 
5000 light (ISV or LUV
3000 Heavy
3000 Medium (find a real medium option too not the medium you have now)
1000 Arctic Mobility Vehicle (BV type of thing)

Replace every 5 years to cascading war stock.

To help keep a truck line open with our small numbers we could offer discounted used trucks (or new builds with government backed financing) for friendly countries. Donate trucks to friendly countries with older fleets, or to the UN and other international groups for peacekeeping, WFP support, and shift some of the cost to the foreign aid budget.
 
To help keep a truck line open with our small numbers we could offer discounted used trucks (or new builds with government backed financing) for friendly countries. Donate trucks to friendly countries with older fleets, or to the UN and other international groups for peacekeeping, WFP support, and shift some of the cost to the foreign aid budget.
Screw the UN. Make the trucks available to the Canadian public first.
 
5000 light (ISV or LUV
3000 Heavy
3000 Medium (find a real medium option too not the medium you have now)
1000 Arctic Mobility Vehicle (BV type of thing)

Replace every 5 years to cascading war stock.
I don't know how much can be done about the size of the trucks. I assume it is driven MOT regulations.
 
5000 light (ISV or LUV
3000 Heavy
3000 Medium (find a real medium option too not the medium you have now)
1000 Arctic Mobility Vehicle (BV type of thing)

Replace every 5 years to cascading war stock.
How about the 6x6 version of the Zetros, rated to 5 tons.
 
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