Government hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Cool so as a reserve crewmen when can I expect access to courses and BTS training time for my Troop on LAVs or Leos so we can deploy together?

I get words and advocacy are about all the CDS can do in this case since the purse is ultimately with TBS but what will CDS do to enable this beyond hopes and dreams?

 

[Underway]

Australia, Canada announce $4B over horizon radar agreement - Breaking Defense

This may be "the single biggest defense industry export from Australia in our history. So this is a really, really big opportunity for the nation," Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said today.

breakingdefense.com

Some interesting news. Canada already developed the "dark ship" detection satellite that Australia uses in this sytem. Middle powers unite, form of arctic radar!

Also if interest OTHR has issues when the ionosphere is disturbed. Which means aurora borealis will cause problems in the Arctic for it. They can probably deal with this to an extent as software will be developed to adjust. @Good2Golf thoughts on this?

 

[daftandbarmy]

Also if interest OTHR has issues when the ionosphere is disturbed. Which means aurora borealis will cause problems in the Arctic for it. They can probably deal with this to an extent as software will be developed to adjust. @Good2Golf thoughts on this?

They had the Chinese Navy doing live firing exercises in their back yard and they had no idea they were there. A passing airliner informed the Aussies.

Are we sure that Australia has the right kit?

 

[IKnowNothing]

They had the Chinese Navy doing live firing exercises in their back yard and they had no idea they were there. A passing airliner informed the Aussies.

Are we sure that Australia has the right kit?

Today in: sensors pointing Northwest not detecting threats to the southeast.

 

[Czech_pivo]

They had the Chinese Navy doing live firing exercises in their back yard and they had no idea they were there. A passing airliner informed the Aussies.

Are we sure that Australia has the right kit?

Their radar was pointed only upwards towards the top of Australia, not to the side. That’s why it didn’t work.





lol, totally kidding here.

 

[IKnowNothing]

Their radar was pointed only upwards towards the top of Australia, not to the side. That’s why it didn’t work.





lol, totally kidding here.

Weellll....

 

[GR66]

Weellll....

View attachment 92072

Soooo....the Maginot Line of radars???

 

[IKnowNothing]

Soooo....the Maginot Line of radars???

Defending flanks is for chumps.

More seriously though, why Borden?
Even with a 3000km range and 180 degree arc you'd think that it should be farther North and more central to optimize national coverage.

 

[Furniture]

Defending flanks is for chumps.

More seriously though, why Borden?
Even with a 3000km range and 180 degree arc you'd think that it should be farther North and more central to optimize national coverage.

Likely a combination of land ownership/availability, nearness to maintainers, and coverage over the parts we actually care about.

 

[Underway]

Australia's national strategy is to defend the "sea air gap" between Australia and Indonesia. The radars are pointed there because those are the area's where there are strategic chokepoints and the main threat axis from any Asian power that wants to project south.

Thus the radars are pointed in the correct direction. In a conflict this will probably be augmented by Australian amphib forces taking land near those chokepoints and setting up their own more direct sensors (EO/IR, drones, radars etc...).

If China wants to send a long flanking sail around the eastern side of those sensors they can do that, but in a general conflict thats running into what is likely going to be USN forces and aircraft, or Australian/NZ patrol aircraft based out of New Guinea, or a submarine or two.

Australia may look at building another radar station to look in that direction.

They had the Chinese Navy doing live firing exercises in their back yard and they had no idea they were there. A passing airliner informed the Aussies.

I have a feeling that the public found out about it because of the Airliner (see Chinese balloon scare in North America). Australia probably knew about it them sailing there, but probably not the live fire stuff.

 

[MilEME09]

Menaced by Trump, Canada Prepares to Join E.U. Military Industry Efforts

Canada’s draft deal to participate in Europe’s defense industry will bring contracts to Canadian manufacturers and help lessen dependence on the United States.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Fabius]

So that looks like #2 then, in this 'New Vision'...

... looking forward to seeing that magically appear in the near future

Enabling Full-time Capability through Part-time Service​

A New Vision for the Reserve Force​

2. Operational Level (Ready Capacity and Capabilities). Primary Reservists not on full-time service (i.e., Class A service) form the majority of CAF capacity, training in their assigned roles, held in reserve, until called out in an emergency. In units and formations across Canada, Reservists at this level maintain operational and administrative readiness through ongoing training and education, concurrently providing a combination of their presence living and working within Canadian communities with regular deployment on domestic operations. Outside an emergency, many of these part-time Reservists regularly consent to fill either temporary augmentation tasks in support of training or operations (as described above) or to undertake their own training, returning to part-time status and their civilian obligations afterwards. Such service has been instrumental to the ongoing capacity for the CAF to deploy on operations and/or meet short-term institutional needs.

CDS Intent. The development of new or enhanced capabilities assigned to the Reserve Force is a key to successful CAF reconstitution and modernization. I therefore expect force development activities to immediately adapt towards assigning appropriate CAF capabilities or distinct elements of capabilities to the Reserve Force, specifically the design of fully equipped force packages that are successfully integrated into force elements or task forces deploying on operations. While the asymmetric models for training and employing Primary Reservists across the services is recognized, force development planning must not be unnecessarily limited by it. I further expect that this includes consideration for the full establishment of new, joint enabling capabilities not currently resident in the Reserve Force.

Enabling Full-time Capability through Part-time Service - Canada.ca

The Canadian Armed Forces strategy to achieve the fundamental change for the Reserve Force outlined in Canada’s Defence Policy and integrated into Objective Force 2030 and Future Force 2040.

www.canada.ca

Interestingly enough I don’t see any recognition of or plan to address what I would say is the reserves fundamental problem.

Job protection legislation in event of a mobilization via OIC, and;

A explicit willingness to mobilize Reserve Units and formations for tasks and missions both domestic and expeditionary via OIC as laid out in the NDA.

Without those two elements the Regular Force will be hesitant and reluctant to put dollars into a force structure that has large key capabilities held primarily in the Reserve Force.

I don’t actually see anything in the CDS direction here that will fundamentally alter the Reg-Res balance of power.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Interestingly enough I don’t see any recognition of or plan to address what I would say is the reserves fundamental problem.

Job protection legislation in event of a mobilization via OIC, and;

A explicit willingness to mobilize Reserve Units and formations for tasks and missions both domestic and expeditionary via OIC as laid out in the NDA.

Without those two elements the Regular Force will be hesitant and reluctant to put dollars into a force structure that has large key capabilities held primarily in the Reserve Force.

I don’t actually see anything in the CDS direction here that will fundamentally alter the Reg-Res balance of power.

But I think it's nicely accomplished the main goal in line with overall government policy: more virtue signaling

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

[OldSolduer]

We probably asked this before but what does the CAF want to be?

 

[GK .Dundas]

CV-90 yeah, but the Challenger is an orphan, the U.K. does not have a lot of them, and the last thing Canada needs is another orphan system.

So.. you're saying there's a pretty good chance that we'll be buying them then ?

 

[FJAG]

Australia, Canada announce $4B over horizon radar agreement - Breaking Defense

This may be "the single biggest defense industry export from Australia in our history. So this is a really, really big opportunity for the nation," Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said today.

breakingdefense.com

Some interesting news. Canada already developed the "dark ship" detection satellite that Australia uses in this sytem. Middle powers unite, form of arctic radar!

Can it point south? Asking for a friend.

 

[GR66]

Interestingly enough I don’t see any recognition of or plan to address what I would say is the reserves fundamental problem.

Job protection legislation in event of a mobilization via OIC, and;

A explicit willingness to mobilize Reserve Units and formations for tasks and missions both domestic and expeditionary via OIC as laid out in the NDA.

Without those two elements the Regular Force will be hesitant and reluctant to put dollars into a force structure that has large key capabilities held primarily in the Reserve Force.

I don’t actually see anything in the CDS direction here that will fundamentally alter the Reg-Res balance of power.

100% this. With all the new found nationalism stemming from Trump's annexation threats now would probably be the ideal time to put forward such legislation. Anyone with contacts in the PP and Carney campaigns that can put a bug in their ears?

 

[daftandbarmy]

We probably asked this before but what does the CAF want to be?

You had to ask, didn't you?

 

[Kirkhill]

Canada​

Canada has been investigating the use of High Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR) for surveillance of the 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for more than 30 years.

Research was initiated in 1984 with the re-purposing of a decommissioned LORAN-A navigation beacon for undertaking experimentation in aircraft, vessel and iceberg tracking.

Research continued for the next decade and in 1999, Canada’s installed two SWR503 HFSWR systems at Cape Race and Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. The sites underwent a technology evaluation in 2000 and were subsequently upgraded and operationally evaluated in 2002.

The following is a quote from the October 2002 Operational Evaluation (OPEVAL) performed by Canadian Department of National Defence: "HFSWR is a beneficial addition to the Recognized Maritime Picture (RMP). Of all the data sources evaluated, it was the only sensor offering near real-time information updates. It provided frequent reporting and generally demonstrated reliable tracking of surface targets in its area of coverage. When the HFSWR system was combined with other data sources, there was a synergistic effect that improved the overall quality of the RMP. Furthermore, from the analysis of the potential contribution to the surveillance-related Force Planning Scenarios, it was evident that the RMP would benefit from the addition of the HFSWR as a new data source."

International sales of the SWR503 radar followed with operational systems installed in Asia (2008) and Europe (2009).

In 2007 operation of the Canadian systems was halted due to concerns over the potential for harmful interference with primary spectrum users.

In 2010 the unique capability of HFSWR to provide low cost surveillance of the EEZ resulted in a re-evaluation of the technology and subsequent development of a 3rd Generation, (3rd Gen) HFSWR system based on the principle of sense-and-adapt technology that enabled operation on a non-allocated, non-interference basis through the use of Dynamic Spectrum Management . Additional developments included improved range performance, better positional accuracy and reduction of false tracks and earlier track initiation.

In June 2019, MAEROSPACE was granted a global license to design,, manufacture, and internationally market the Canadian HFSWR System and its derivatives.

On 18 March 2025, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney announced that Canada would purchase JORN radar technology from Australia, for deployment over the Arctic.

Over-the-horizon radar - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Is there a lot of difference between the paths the Aussies and we were on.

 

[Maxman1]

CV-90 yeah, but the Challenger is an orphan, the U.K. does not have a lot of them, and the last thing Canada needs is another orphan system.

The Challenger 3 is a refurbish and upgrade program for the Challenger 2, using hulls built in the 90s. The biggest difference is a new turret with the Rh-120 L/55.

My line of thinking is put the Challenger 3 into full scale new production. Besides us, the British Army would probably like to have more than 148, or at least be able to account for attrition, and Ukraine has nothing but praise for the Challenger 2s they received and would probably like to have new tanks.

Since BAE Systems built the Challenger 2 in the first place, logically they should have the blueprints so it should be physically possible to build new hulls.

In other words, make the Challenger 3 not an orphan system.

And this would be to replace the Lav's or the Leo's or neither and be a 'net new' asset to be incorporated?

The CV90s would be a net new asset, the Challenger 3 would replace the Leopards.