recceguy said:
Can't blame them for wanting to spend time at sea, work aboard modern boats and ships, be respected by the government they work for. A country that knows how to go out and purchase what they need, no matter the source. We can't even figure out how to buy boots. They will work for a navy that knows when to cut their losses and move on. As opposed to trying to make things work aboard our outdated, second hand Upholder/ Victoria class boat doing upgrades that the boat was never meant house. IIRC, they can't even fire most modern torpedoes (someone can correct that if I'm wrong). A country that won't be held hostage by shipyards, politicians and lobbyists. One that believes in their sovereignty. We have a country with blue water on three out of four sides, but we don't have a blue water navy that can project globally without the support of our allies. Our northern sovereignty is non existent. We don't have a boat that can even get there without resupply and can't stay under the ice. CAF servicepersons are a proud bunch, we've done so much with nothing that I can't blame them. I say godspeed and good luck to every single sailor, soldier or airman that wants to go. They will still be allies and commonwealth members.
Ah yes, "grass is greener in the ADF".
The Australian military *seems* to be in a much better position because a) the politicians aren't outwardly bashing it due to geopolitical reasons, b) they've had a spending spree starting in the 2000s when they realized their forces were in need of an overhaul, and c) we don't see much Aussie media.
"Being respected by the government they work for" is only somewhat true. During press conferences and ANZAC Day, the military enjoys immense support (but really only for historical reasons) but other than that, no real change from the CAF - the "mile wide and inch deep" also applies to the ADF. There are no US-style love-ins for ADF members, no discounts that I could remember for service members, etc. I assure you that politicians are held to the same regard.
"But they have so much stuff!" Yes, the RAAF and the RAN bought a lot of stuff - the Army did not. Their procurement system is less constrained by "Buy Australia" mostly because Australia no longer builds aircraft, tanks, etc so there's really no option to do so. They have a shipbuilding industry, which argued over who would get the (much over-priced) Air Warfare Destroyer. They do "Australianize" their equipment, with predictable results but we outside of the ADF don't hear about their issues (and I won't talk about them here).
How many of their new aircraft/ships/etc are fully serviceable at any one time? How busy are their folks - are they burnt out? How good is their Superannuation compared to our pension?
I'm not going to blow sunshine up people's butts and say that we don't have our issues, but holding Australia to the gold standard is not exactly correct. They wish they could get equipment like the US as well. Their army, now that Afghanistan is done, is sitting around like ours. They have their issues with sexual harassment, etc - everyone hears about the Chief of Army's speech (it's part of our OP HONOUR) but that was basically because the ADF had several high-profile scandals of that nature (none that reached Canada as far as I know) that the ADF leadership had to do something about it. They're losing people rapidly too, or else they wouldn't be so big on lateral recruitment and providing retention bonuses to attempt to stop people leaving.
As for boots - funny story but when I was there, the running joke is that their DEU shoes had glued soles so every parade, you see a mess of soles detached and lying there on the pavement. The solution? Re-glue the soles.
All that to say, the grass isn't always greener on the other side. However, given the National Post's fawning of the ADF a few years ago, I could totally see how it would seem that way - imagine what someone would think of the CAF if all they heard/saw of it was from something like the Maple Leaf or the CAF official sites.