No need for new military units, says Hillier

[dapaterson]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/07/25/hillier-cfunits.html

The general also poured cold water on Conservative plans to create up to 14 territorial defence battalions.

"We're not in the business of creating a new units. We have sufficient units," he said.

Under the Tory plan, each unit was to be made up of 100 regular and 400 reserve force personnel. A 2006 news release from Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said the proposed battalions would be "the first line of response to any disaster."

However, Hillier did say the military has decided to revamp its existing reserves to help meet the spirit of the Conservative promise.

More on the link...

 

[Teddy Ruxpin]

Common sense prevails?  This makes me cautiously optimistic.

Now if only we can sum the whole stupid TDBG concept up and get on with real operational planning...

 

[Greymatters]

I have always considered the idea of the 14 territorial defence battalions as a bad idea and a political sop at best.  It might have been a good idea 20 years ago, but it would only throw a wrench into the problems we are already dealing with.

 

[Pte AJB]

A demonstration of common sense I agree, but I wonder how many time General Hillier can make these political statements before getting his wrist slapped? Isn't this an overstep of boundaries?

 

[Eland]

The idea of territorial defence battalions sounds good from a conceptual standpoint. However, isn't this issue already dealt with through the creation of 31 Canadian Brigade, et al.? Nominally, these Reserve brigade groups already have a number of regular force members attached (usually as RSS).

In time of emergency, I doubt it would be too difficult to bolster the number of regulars to the 100-mark suggested. The Reserve units in question could look after themselves. That is, in 31 CBG alone there are no less than 18 regiments, covering an area running from Windsor to as far east as Toronto and as far north in Southwestern Ontario as Tobermory. Even assuming near-skeletal levels of manning (say 60 pers per unit), these units taken together at that minimal level could field 1,080 personnel, well in excess of the TDB targets. Just the RSS complement alone, assuming 5 - 10 per unit, works out to anywhere from 90 to as many as 180 troops.

What is needed is some means of very quickly mobilizing these units and ensuring that brigade command assets are in place waiting for their arrival at their posts. Quick mobilization is, IMHO the essence of a territorial defence brigade.

 

[dapaterson]

Eland:  keep in mind that reserve unit strengths generally include significant number sof personnel who are not yet fully trained and are therefore not employable.  The regular force personnel posted to units generall include one clerk, one supply tech, and and officer and NCM in trade for the unit; that's not necessarily the force package you'll want on the ground.

You are right that the rapid mobilization (can we will use that word  ) of the REserves is a key challenge that needs to be addressed.

 

[MarkOttawa]

Globe story, July 26:

Hillier cool to Ottawa's reserve plan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070726.wdefence26/BNStory/National/home

Canada's top soldier appears to have sidelined the Conservative government's election promise to create 14 new army reserve units across the country that would be the first line of defence in case of natural or other disasters.

“We're not in the business of creating new reserve units,” Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier told the CBC. “We have sufficient units. … We don't need new units.”

The 14 “territorial defence battalions” were a key element of the Tories' Canada First defence plan as laid out in the 2006 election campaign. Under the proposal, each unit would be made up of 100 regular troops and 400 reservists.

The units were to be established in urban areas across the country. During the campaign, Gordon O'Connor, who went on to become Defence Minister, called them “the first line of response to any disaster.” Tory campaign material referred to them as “new” defence battalions.

Gen. Hillier, who has tussled with Mr. O'Connor before, appears to have won an internal battle to halt the establishment of new reserve units and instead will concentrate on improving existing units.

“I guess there's been a bureaucratic struggle inside the department and it seems to me that Hillier has persuaded the minister and his advisers that it doesn't make sense [to set up new units],” said Jack Granatstein, a military expert and professor emeritus of history at York University.

A Defence Department official insisted that there was “no disagreement” between Mr. O'Connor and Gen. Hillier. “They're on the same page,” said the official, who declined to be identified by name. “There is no disagreement.”

But the official did concede that the plan, when finally announced, would not result in the creation of new reserve units. “It's not new units. It's reorganizing the reserve.”

Mr. Granatstein said he thought the original plan outlined during the election campaign was “a bad idea” particularly because the core of each new battalion was to include 100 regular soldiers, which the Forces could not afford to spare. A later version of the plan talked of the core being made up of full-time reservists, which was less of a problem. Other critics have noted that reservists are above all needed to augment regular forces abroad, particularly in Afghanistan, rather than manning new battalions that would be waiting for forest fires, floods or ice storms to strike at home...

Gen. Hillier's criticism of new units was limited to the question of reserves and not related to the establishment of rapid-deployment units for the regular forces, like the air force unit announced last week by Mr. O'Connor for the CFB Bagotville in Quebec.

“It's completely different,” Alain Pellerin, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, said of the Bagotville announcement.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GUNS]

After promising a Rapid Response Force for CFB Goose Bay in the last election, you can take this to the bank. There will be no PC elected in Labrador.

 

[SiG_22_Qc]

Yay more paper batallions!

 

[Spencer100]

After promising a Rapid Response Force for CFB Goose Bay in the last election, you can take this to the bank. There will be no PC elected in Labrador.

Was there ever a chance?

 

[GUNS]

Not now.

 

[GK .Dundas]

Should I care if Goose Bay gets it's bribe or not ?

 

[MarkOttawa]

An uneven power struggle ("provisions of Copyright Act etc")
Globe and Mail editorial, June 27
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20070727/EHILLIER27/Editorials/commentEditorials/commentEditorials/3/3/3/

It should not be left to Canada's top soldier to announce significant changes in Ottawa's approach to the nation's security. But there was General Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff, this week casually shelving the Conservative government's election promise to create 14 new army reserve units. Meanwhile, his boss, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, was once again missing from the political action.

The apparent policy reversal popped up almost inadvertently as Gen. Hillier discussed the Tory commitment to station the reserve territorial battalions, each with 100 regular troops and 400 reservists, as emergency response units in major urban centres across the country. "We're not in the business of creating new reserve units," he told the CBC. "We have sufficient units.... We don't need new units." He added that the military has opted to revamp its existing reserve units to meet the spirit of that Conservative vow.

Given the demands on the Canadian forces in Afghanistan, where 900 reservists now serve, that is almost certainly the right approach. But Mr. O'Connor should have announced the change. Instead, over the past 18 months, the line between political and military duties has blurred as the two men have brushed repeatedly and uneasily against each other.

Perhaps such clashes were inevitable, given their huge differences in management style and personality. Mr. O'Connor is not a strong minister. A former brigadier-general, he has not mastered the art of politics or the intricacies of such contentious files as the treatment of Afghan detainees. He has alienated the military with his tendency to blame underlings for his problems, rather than shoulder the responsibility as minister. Worse, because he cannot project warmth and eloquence, he has not managed to rally a nation that is effectively at war as domestic support for the mission flags.

In contrast, Gen. Hillier is a strong personality. Admired by his troops in the field, he has fought vehement behind-the-scenes battles on their behalf, securing extensive orders for new equipment. Expansive and genial, he is a far abler politician than Mr. O'Connor. He is an asset in the struggle to win domestic support. But without strong political oversight, he is apt to stray onto political turf. Mr. O'Connor is apparently incapable of providing that oversight, leaving a vacuum for Gen. Hillier to fill.

It is hard to see how this unfortunate situation can be resolved without Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointing a new Minister of Defence.

Mark
Ottawa

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Just more 'Mop & Pail' anti CPC bullshit. If it's not a Liberal initiative, you can rest assured, they will make a mountain from a molehill. I don't know why they don't just print a big red LiberaL banner across the top of every issue. They have to be one of, if not the most, biased propaganda rags in the country. Good waste of a tree, unless your lining the bird cage or litter box.

 

[GK .Dundas]

Just more 'Mop & Pail' anti CPC bullshit. If it's not a Liberal initiative, you can rest assured, they will make a mountain from a molehill. I don't know why they don't just print a big red LiberaL banner across the top of every issue. They have to be one of, if not the most, biased propaganda rags in the country. Good waste of a tree, unless your lining the bird cage or litter box.

I tend to agree with it though, Harper has to get rid of O'Connor the problem is that he can't really . The political cost would very high perhaps too high.
Harper has been a failure when it has come to explaining his polices on Afghanistan.Well not a absolute failure we're still in Afghanistan.Simply put it has to do a better job of convincing the Canadian public of the rightness of what we as a country are doing.

 

[Osotogari]

Mobilization of militia units and/or Territorial defence - Interesting concept, but it seems that for the last 20 or so years the reserve force has been little more than a temp agency for hastily planned missions that are manned according to the peacekeeping augmentation method of the late 1980's and early 1990's.  There seems little effort in maintaining the existing reserve force beyond that to the point where, from where I'm sitting in 41 Bde, collective training is de-emphasized to the point where the objective seems to be to get individuals to DAG green when they report for pre-training seems to be the only consistent training objective. 

I don't think we need more units, though outlying companies in many cases would help with manning problems and give some top-heavy organisations some more legitimacy.  I'm still a big advocate of calling up reserve brigades or units  for missions, political costs aside for the moment, similar to the National Guard with the same employment guarantees for returning soldiers rather than going with a 20-year-old method that from an augmentee's point of view is rife with cap badge politics and infighting. 

That's not to say that our disaster response capability doesn't need work.  I shudder to think of any number of scenarios occuring from a west coast earthquake, big jetliner crash up north, an attack or other catastrophic breach of an oil pipeline in an isolated area, or anything else because right now if we can't get there by LSVW then we can't get there at all.

To conclude, we've been hacked, slashed, and bureacratized to the point where it is going to take the rest of the current generation's time in service to fix it.  Thank God Hillier is where he is right now, I hope his successor is cut from the same cloth.

 

 

[Journeyman]

I wish our media wasn't so clueless and/or biased. There's simply no third option to explain their performance.

One of the CDS' key roles is to provide military advice to the government in power, as well as the opposition parties and Senate.

Saying “We have sufficient units. … We don't need new units,” is advice. Not once did the article (the substantive portions, rather than the journalists' anti-Conservative "interpretation") indicate that Hillier said, "screw you government, we're not doing what you've ordered." Despite the journalists' hand-wringing, no change of policy by the CDS occurred.

Perhaps if they knew how the Canadian government was organized to operate, the media might have the competent ability to comment on whether or not it is in fact operating correctly. I guess their community college journalism certificate didn't include anything as basic as even Canadian Politics 101.  :

 

[daftandbarmy]

Here's a good idea for a new type of military unit that will meet all political objectives: a 100% female peacekeeping force, complete with stylish blue cam outfits...

http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/ProgrammeFeature.aspx?id=43&FeatureId=64

 

[Long in the tooth]

I don't believe the PM appreciates the Militia's important history and footprint in communities.  On the other hand, Reserve units need to be more amenable to changes in structure, roles and tasks.  They can't remain a museum piece display of former campaigns.