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I'm having trouble understanding why the government went with the C-295 instead of new-build Buffalo CC-115's from Viking Air. The support infrastructure for the Buffalo is already there, so there's no need to build a totally new infrastructure, although some upgrades might be needed as the...

It's because Canadians are in love with the idea that if we all just join hands and sing "Kumbaya", all will be well. To most Canadians, the military is seen as a somewhat 'icky' kind of thing, best not seen and not heard, but they want to have some way of getting Canada a place on the world...

How apropos that you would have been shown Breaker Morant, of all things, while on a legal course. One of the things that has always impressed and amazed me was how one of the soldiers who was being ordered to give testimony managed to haul himself out of his chair on one leg and snap to...

The introduction I received to the FNC1A1 when I joined an armoured reserve unit in 1979 was somewhat more detailed and structured than this. I joined up under the auspices of something that was called SRTP, or Summer Reserve Training Program, which was basically a summer job-creation programme...

And this is where one has to question whether a vehicle like the LSV can operate successfully in Canada, given the frequently difficult terrain that exists, particularly in remote areas. In provinces like Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and a good chunk of southern Alberta, the LSV might be...

Or, you could go for something like Singapore's Light Strike Vehicle, if you want a ULCV with somewhat more capability than the Polaris vehicle. It can mount a 40mm AGL, or a .50 cal HMG, or an ATGM post. The non-ATGM version can seat up to six soldiers. Air-transportable via C-130 or CH47...

It's feasible to mount a 20mm cannon on the roof of a HMMWV. Here's a picture of an El Salvadorean with a 20mm cannon. Although I think a 20mm gun on a Hummer would probably result in a lot of shake, rattle and roll for the crew inside.

A while back I read something that indicated that the LCS were being manned with really tiny crews (in an effort to save money) and these crews were being worked to the verge of exhaustion, being required to do too many different jobs on board. I wonder if that might have had anything to do with...

It's been a long time since I've been in as a reservist, but making a very wild-ass, non-professional guess based on the tooth-to-tail ratio that seems to exist now, I would daresay we wouldn't be able to deploy more than a company-sized formation for anything resembling combat operations. Two...

The Fennek indeed does appear to be a decent recce vehicle, although I wonder how well it stands up to mines or IED's. From the way it is configured, it's definitely meant for classic sneak 'n peek mud recce taskings. The Fennek was designed long before IED's became a feature of the tactical...

I always thought that the VBL would have been a good recce platform for reserve armoured units. It's small, appears to be capable of doing mud recce at a basic level if the terrain isn't too rough, and I doubt that it would cost anywhere near as much as the TAPVs do. So it would probably be...

We probably haven't had any real war stocks since the end of the Korean War, given the succession of governments over the ensuing decades that have tried to do defence on the cheap.

The US Navy have been doing this with their new littoral patrol vessels, working with what are essentially skeleton crews but trying to get full-complement performance. Can't say it's working too well from some of the media reports I've been seeing. Sailors crewing the littoral ships are burnt...

A long time ago, I had a SKS. Bought it from Milarm out west, if I recall correctly. Pumped through quite a few rounds with it and never had a slam-fire or any other problems. I can't remember if the rifle was new or used at the time I acquired it, so I have no way of knowing whether Milarm...

I don't know if the vehicle has a specific name, but it's clearly a recovery vehicle based on the hull of a Sherman tank, probably a M4A3E8, given the type of suspension. A quick boo at Wikipedia seems to indicate that the vehicle in question might well be a M74 Armoured Recovery Vehicle.

I suspect that whoever designed the 'NAVY' identifier strip may have placed a maple leaf in the middle to act as a visual separator between the English and French words. Think of it this way, what looks better and more readable? 1. NAVY  MARINE (no separator) or 2. NAVY    X    MARINE (where...

I've never served in the navy, but I did do a couple of years as an armoured recce crewman in a reserve unit, and I don't like the look of the new NCD that is shown in the picture. While it looks eminently practical with all the extra pockets and the bloused pants, it doesn't look very 'naval'...

I could actually see the government opting for something like 80 - 90 Scorpions or Hawks to handle ground-strike missions and purchase a fleet of 45 - 50 F/A 18 Growlers or the same number of Typhoons or Rafales, or possibly even F15C's (as someone else posting to this thread has suggested) to...

Well, given that there is some parts commonality between the Super Hornet and the existing CF-18 fleet, I would hazard a guess that we would opt for the Super Hornet long before we would go for the Typhoon, which would require an entirely new maintenance infrastructure.

Well, the CF-5 was never designed to be capable of interdiction. Its short range, relatively low speed and limited ordnance handling capability pretty well relegated it to being a ground strike platform, and if I recall correctly, this is generally how the CF-5 was employed in the CF, chiefly...