"When we talk about the "collapse of the CF", we are referring to the ability of the military to do its job."
Agreed. I'm saying the military is not capable of doing it's job. The gov't has commited our armed forces to the WOT and our military is unable to make a signifigant contribution to it. Why is it that we are on an "operational pause" in the middle of a war our gov't has commited us to?
Here are a few questions I think are pertinent:
Are we meeting our recruiting goals?
Until recently, we were actually enjoying an embarassment of riches in this department for a couple of years, in both Reg and Res, but I have heard that we are now on a downswing again.
Are we able to train those we recruit?
Apparently not-I have heard (and seen posted on this site) horror stories of the huge PAT organizations at Borden. One of our greatest issus, Res and Reg, is the availability of the right officers and (especially) NCOs to run the trg.
Are we retaining those we train?
I think we are having some problems here, but I am not sure exactly what the figures are. However, my impression is that the attrition is not as bad as it was, say, ten or fifteen years ago when you couldn't even say "same as last year" to a Regf rifle coy because not too many would know what that meant.
Are we able to meet our operational committments?
I don't know, but as long as I have served we have never been fully able to do this, and have engaged in various shell games to pretend we could. This doesn't mean it's not an issue: I'd say it means it's an issue that's been bubbling for years.
What is the largest body of ground forces we can equip and deploy on combat operations?
There are so many variables to this answer that one could almost reply: "Nobody knows" but I think that in a real pinch, given the resources and time, a Brigade Group, but that will soon no longer even be in consideration as we are moving towards focusin on unit-sized TFs.
How long can it be sustained?
Again, there are a whole list of variables here: it's hard to even guess at an answer unless you defined the circumstances a bit better.
Are our reserves capable of deploying?
As individuals, and up to formed composite sub-units, definitely. As units or formations, or as single-unit based subunits? No, but then I assure you that when I joined the Militia in 1974 the situation was far worse. The Reserve capability is much better than it has ever been, and the lvel of op experience is unequalled. The fact is that we do not structure our Reserves in peacetime for unit or formation deployment, and IMHO our military history shows that in peacetime we never have. Without moving to a system approximating the USARNG/USAR I do not see how we could.
If not how long would it take to get them to deployment status?
Again, it depends on what you mean by "deployment status". Individuals and formed sub-units: 90 to 120 days (although we recently launched a formed Res pl to Op ATHENA on way less time than that, due partly to the fact that an increasing number of Res soldiers (esp the vital NCOs) have op experience now. Some individuals in some units are ready to go at alot less than 90 days, depending on who they are and what it is we want them to do. Now, if you are talking about formed units or formations: forget it: we are nowhere near that for a host of reasons. "Mobilization Stage Three" remains a paper dream at the moment.
Most importantly, what is the limiting factor of our deployment on operations, neccessity, operational capacity or political will (is there something we need to be doing? can we do it? will our gov't commit us to it?)
All three, all the time. These factors are always at play for all nations. We're no different In fact, I 'd argue that (for better or worse...) we've been a hell of a lot more active and expeditionary than any other Armed Forces of our size and budget, including combat ops.
By the way I was in Croatia ten years ago and I would argue we aren't better off now than we were then. We had three missions on the grounf in the FRY then, Palladium, Harmony and Cavalier. Two Battle Groups and a Logistics BN. We may not have had CADPAT gloves but we had boots on the ground.
I was commanding a mech rifle company in Croatia in 1994 and I'd challenge you that in a number of areas we are better off now, not the least being a modern capable fighting vehicle ideally suit for those type of ops instead of clapped out old M113s that were not the right piece of kit, were mine-traps and were maintenance intense, especially after we up-armoured them which turned out to be almost too much for their power plants. We are also way ahead in night vision equipment-the other day I visited one of the OPs at Camp Julien and took a look at the gear: we have definitely progressed. The entire suite of personal kit or our soldiers (less a few items that don;t work) is again way better than what we had in 94. We have also learned to deploy the right gear for the job: what I would have given for us to have tanks and arty in Croatia; both of these have been deployed overseas in the last few years. We are not perfect (we are not even good in some areas) but we have gotten better in some key areas. Where I think we may be deteriorating is in individual skills, espcially Inf dismounted combat skills, winter trg (terrible...) etc. As well, I do not know anymore if the average Inf NCO is as good as they were ten years ago: I'm not sure. Any comments from anybody? Cheers