Recent content by Ostrozac

The CAF has been using a wide variety of solutions, including new builds, legacy/heritage buildings, and buildings abandoned by the Reg Force (NDMC is one). All are expensive options. There’s also been an experiment in using modular FOB-style buildings - 30 Fd Regt RCA moved into this when their...

Don’t forget about the $100 million for the armoury to house less than 100 effectives. Seriously, in some, maybe most, cases the most expensive part of equipping a reservist is not the gear in his hands, it’s the roof over his head. Infrastructure has to be factored in.

There are other exceptions. In addition to CFR and SRCP, Reserve officers under RESO and Regular officers under CEOTP are not required to have degrees until they reach the rank of Major. DAOD 5002-8 and 5002-6 refer. So, in short, it depends on your commissioning plan.

I took a quick look at google maps, and an 8 hour drive is an unusual figure, as only one brigade group has a geographic size close to that number. The Quebec brigades and the 2 Southern Ontario brigades are much smaller (in the 3 to 5 hour range), and the western brigades are much larger (in...

The Triton/Global Hawk family doesn’t employ dropped stores. The SeaGuardian version of the MQ-9, however, shows promise. It has long endurance, can carry an impressive amount of sonobouys, and acts as a rebroadcaster for sonobouy data. I don’t think anyone’s dropped a torpedo yet from a Reaper...

Thanks for the backstory — so people were actually thumb dropping the hammer onto loaded chambers with the 1911 and BHP? Or at least often enough that there was a term for it? That’s just… wow. Seems so odd to have a manual safety but then ignore it entirely. The ancient ways are fascinating.

Didn’t you guys carry your 226s in Condition 2? That’s how I, and the people I worked with, would carry them. Hammer down on a loaded chamber. The only 226 that should be carried Condition 1 is the fairly uncommon 226 SAO Legion. Edited to add the late Colonel Cooper’s handgun conditions...

Pulling tanks out of Latvia I could live with, as they may not be supportable in the long term, but rotational infantry can’t be easily tied to a single brigade, or a single regiment. It risks burning out one part of the army while the rest is underemployed. Plus, specific to 5 brigade, 80% of...

US international borders can be changed by treaty — negotiated by the State Department, signed by the President, final approval by the Senate. This has actually happened, in 1977 the US and Mexico swapped some islands in the Rio Grande. In the US the county and state level seem to have no...

If we can staff them, we’re golden. Good to go for a generation. If we can’t, we’ve just wasted billions, and it’s going to be extremely challenging to get buy-in for future equipment with questions around whether there’s anyone who will be around to use them. I fear we’re drifting towards...

There’s hiring, then there’s hiring. It won’t help DND much if we get a sudden intake of a bunch of laterals from random departments whose positions got just deleted — experts in passport procurement won’t help. Bonus points if people come in to DND to retain their salary then suddenly claim to...

The USAF/RAF model of a security force formed completely within the RCAF is probably what is being envisioned, as it is compatible with the model used by the RCAF’s two closest partners, but an alternate model where security is provided by personnel drawn from the Army might also be doable. This...

That wasn’t good enough for nukes, and it won’t be good enough for 5th generation fighters. A proper security force isn’t optional — and everyone’s known this for a while. We were never going to be able to secure the world’s 3rd largest F-35 fleet with a padlock.

This idea keeps getting kicked around, notable was General Rick Hillier’s directive in January 2006 that we were to start emphasizing fitness. (How did the last 19 years go for our collective fitness? Do we even care enough to keep track?)...

Agreed. We might simply be splitting hairs on the definition of security. The official role of the USAF 425th Munitions Maintenance Squadron dets in Canada was “Custodial and Maintenance functions for US material in Canada” and to my mind custody doesn’t include security. There were no USAF...