Recent content by Michael Shannon

      The problem with saying as Ruxted Editor does, that DND must have the resources to complete whatever missions assigned it is that DND doesn't limit itself to spending on operationally essential people & assets. Hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars are spent annually on things...

There's no place for a separate corps (with all the costs involved) that specializes in patrolling in jeeps and pickups. The infantry already do that. Either give the reserve armoured corps AFVs or rap it up. On the infantry side it should be made clear that, if AFVs aren't to be provided, the...

I hope no one believes that the equipping of militia armoured units is based on "doctrine". They had to have something to drive in. AFVs & G Wagons were out because of cost. Disbandment was out because the reserves are already well below the LFRR goals for numbers and you'd naturally lose some...

  Camp Mirage is nice as well and so is Garrison Edmonton. Just pointing out something we're really good at.

Our "forte"  is obviously the construction of comfortable camps.

  Exactly and if your unit could LPO small arms ammo think of how much better the troops skill and morale would be as well as your "foot print " in the community.

The FAL is hardly a museum piece. It is ergonomically the best rifle available for a right handed shooter. It is more than accurate enough for most infantry shooting and fires a round that's making a comeback: the US military will have at least three self loading 7.62 rifles in issue soon (M14...

A few phrases would be helpful but if the CF was serious about the long term capability to work in the region it would a) actively seek to recruit native speakers b) send serving soldiers on long term immersion courses c) pay tuitions for soldiers studying target languages, d) put Rosetta Stone...

What miracles? $ 14 billion a year & 75,000 people to put an ad hoc battalion supported by a handful of aircraft and a couple of ships in the field is indeed miraculous but not in the sense I think you mean.

    Although I'm an infantryman I'd say that the engineers are a better way to go for a reg NCM. Having lost mortars and assault pioneers the chance to do interesting things has gone down a bit in the infantry. I believe the engineers still have combat divers, a full suite of armoured vehicles...

Kandahar Air Base. Unknown? The PRT will be at a major established US airbase with about a brigade guarding it. Coalition troops have been in the area for over three years. The PRT will be able to hide in the fort if things get overly dangerous. This hardly equates to the danger of a para jump...

I give up. You guys are right. We definitely need an airborne capability to hold off the Danes, save Saskatchewan from terrorists and rescue people in Africa, if the US will lend us the planes and don't just go ahead and rescue the foreigners instead of waiting for the Canadians to show up.

What the Yanks do is not relevant. What ex colonial powers do isn't relevant. Our government has decided not to field all purpose combat capable forces. It doesn't want to spend the money. It doesn't want to send troops into unknown danger. Can it get more unknown than a hastily prepared 8,000...

          If CF wants to be able to insert small patrols by free fall fine, but no US mass jump op has been necessary or even wise since at least early Viet Nam. The US does them because they can get away with it not because it's necessary. The French have a different situation in their old...

While it's good to hear the medical portion of res recruiting is being improved it's worrying that it took the better part of a decade. Now if only the decade long effort to apply physical fitness standards to Class A res will come up with something. Next step. Enrolling pers with former...