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Interesting point from my favourite bug bear. The article talks about equipping all 11 of the army's divisions within five years. It is noteworthy that there are 11 active army divisions but also another 8 ARNG Infantry divisions not mentioned one way or another. A fiscal issue? A predictive...

Just quickly, the 20-40-40 comes up in the UK 2025 Strategic Defence Review for the British Army as: A Parliamentary summary adds: The footnote 17 is from the British Army Review "SDR: Sp what for the army?" Issue 194, pg 6 which provides a broad overview of the army's strategy to increase...

We're getting to longer and longer posts. A thought on cost ratios. tube artillery rounds are very hard to intercept still and fly in all weather and also provide mass neutralizing effects. That has to be taken into consideration in the cost equation. That's why both systems are mandatory but...

And therein lies the coordination problem. Until we got to Afghanistan and people started working cheek to jowl with each other for a year, there was a distinct lack of understanding as to what the other guy brought to the table and how best to split the workload between them. The 20% here...

It's interesting that this focused on the direct fire and manoeuvre capabilities of the force but didn't add one word about indirect fire or air defence elements. Maybe I'm reading too much into that failure but the careful and frequently rehearsed integration of fires into the combat...

All the old Sherman hulls I shot at are all gone? :unsure:

@Kirkhill There's an interesting and little known system you overlooked. It's the Ground-based Midcourse Defence (GBMD or GBD) system which is part of the Missile Defence Agency and is operated out of Fort Greeley (40 interceptors) and California (4) and, interestingly, operated by the US...

For those contemplating abandoning Europe in order to become insular or to primarily face west, our government doesn't agree with you. Carney is certainly out stumping up a new east-west trans-Atlantic alliance. 🍻

It all made sense until this: That rankled me. It's like "we have a problem in UK waters and we've f***ed up our own navy so we want everyone from around here to come under our command to fix things." There are already NATO Standing Maritime Groups that Canada participates with from...

:oops: Wow. She was launched in 1991 and commissioned in 1993. That puts her on a par with the latter part of our Halifax fleet. I guess if you throw your money at two aircraft carriers something else has to give. 🍻

I don't think it was ever a tank regiment. We did have some AMF(L) prepositioned equipment in Norway. I think everything changed with respect to Norway when we transferred our focus to putting 5 GMBC in as a reinforcement in central Europe with 1 Div and 4 CMBG. 🍻

:giggle: As we speak I'm trying to take fifty pages of stuff I've written and notes that I've made (linked to several hundreds of pages of reference material) and try to reduce them to a coherent twelve-page epilogue for our three "With A Few Guns" books. The last thing I need or want is "light...

My concept is a prepositioned, flyover division which could in fact have a smaller full-time presence in Latvia than we have now. It would simply grow for training events and in times of crisis. Practically speaking though, growing the planned defensive structure for the Baltics by two brigades...

True enough but my main focus is that the military system is seen as addressing an issue and not just ignoring it. I don't even want to bother contemplating what the right action is for this offence, but someone in the system needs to address it and then come out with a proper and timely...

IMHO, I can't see any reason why anyone would want to take the time and effort to pursue a CSD case against him even if not barred by double jeopardy. The crown has covered all of that. Administrative action taken on the facts disclosed and the criminal conviction is enough and appropriate. 🍻

Maybe not for general war with Europe per se, but do not count out the bite and hold strategies it has used with Ukraine. The Baltics are very vulnerable to that as are Armenia, Moldova, and Serbia (The last two aren't NATO but NATO adjacent). Post WW2 Soviet expansion had put significant...

We totally agree. The further we can reach out from land from mobile platforms the more we reduce the burden on our air and sea forces. We provide strongly defended anchor points that allow them to maximize their capabilities to strike where land forces can't reach. To me that's just strategy...

I think we mostly agree. Especially on the fact that we should be more ambitious and involved. Maybe my NATO tilt comes from my own heritage and that I think that committing to the defence there in a meaningful way - primarily a flyover prepositioned division - will pay big dividends in trade...

That's what the folks in the government and the CAF in the 1990's thought. Look where that got us. Don't forget their resilience and unpredictability. Like the US is now, they have been and are focused on their own interests. They abandoned a key role in Europe as the suppliers of energy for...