Continental Defence Corvette

[SeaKingTacco]

Add to that a fundamentally flawed "command" structure and the Liberals failure to stop the decline of defence spending.

The post Korea period had been a time of major spending but even before Hellyer real dollar spending had been flat and spending as a % of GDP had been dropping like a rock.

In the decade after Hellyer spending in real terms went up from around ~$1.8 billion to ~$4.0 billion but dropped as a % of GDP from ~2.5% to ~1.7% while the annual consumer price index was ranging from ~4% to ~10%. Visibly the period showed the loss of many defence outputs in both deployable units and equipment for all three services while new headquarters proliferated.

Like many things, the issue is spread between a bad idea and bad execution of the idea. It was one thing to leave army aviation with the army and naval air and aviation with the navy (after all that's where they were before unification), but who thought it made sense to give CF-5s to the army (Mobile Command's 10 TAG)? Or that all military training systems run under one "Training Command?"

I've always found this article by LGen Bill Carr to be interesting - not so much for what it says but the tone for how it is said and the squabbles that it reflects on.

At least with training command, recruiting was aligned with coursing and there was very little standing around on PAT…

 

[dapaterson]

At least with training command, recruiting was aligned with coursing and there was very little standing around on PAT…

The CAF's day to day role is readiness.

The hollowing out of the training system to provide a bare minimum if successful at 100% runs counter to readiness.

 

[FSTO]

I'm not the one that suggested an L1 was irrelevant. There's value in having all 4 elements with sufficient resources and equipment to do their jobs domestically and abroad. The constant victim culture of RCN trying to claim big bad Army is taking all their money is tiresome.

How long does it take to acquire, maintain and recapitalizing tanks, trucks, APCs, or to purchase a pistol? Vice acquiring, maintaining, and recapitalizing a fleet of warships? The magnitude and need for stable funding is much greater. That our procurement system is so broken that we cannot seem to purchase Army equipment at a more appropriate speed and cost is not the fault of the RCN.

 

[PrairieFella]

Idk, I think Gen Rouleau knows a thing or two about warfighting and when he says this unsustainable for the Army and Air Force, Ill take his word for it.

 

[FJAG]

At least with training command, recruiting was aligned with coursing and there was very little standing around on PAT…

That's very true. Recruiting was a minor issue in those days. The bigger one was how to remuster all those folks who were made redundant in their prior trades or classifications by force reductions. The arty didn't see new recruits (or promotions amongst NCMs) for the better part of a half a decade until air defence became a thing again. The 3rd had a whole battery - about 150 folks - who were kept around for about a year until they could be placed on courses elsewhere. They weren't on an equivalent of PAT. We made good use of them while we had them. Ammo was cheap and plentiful as we fired off 105mm war stocks.

For the life of me I do not understand the current recruiting and throughput issues. I'm too far away from things to know what is going on but I'm left with the suspicion that the system is rife with self-inflicted wounds.