- Reaction score
- 2,829
- Points
- 940
To be fair, the CFDS was never any form of a "strategy"; it was a Christmas 'wish list' masquerading as a coherent policy. It was correctly judged as unaffordable and shelved before the ink was dry.Humphrey Bogart said:This would also result in the government falling short of its CFDS commitments.
"1" is a non-starter...well, until we're in some crisis and it's too late.One of two things needs to happen:
1. We drastically increase the Defence Budget
2. We make significant adjustments to our present Force Structure by cutting personnel, equipment, operations, etc. No more doing more with less, the future is all about doing less with less.
"2" needs a complete re-think.
For way too long, our default has been "ok, they've given us x dollars; what can we do with it?" If Canada was remotely serious about the military* the government (Party is completely irrelevant) must start discussions with "what do we want the military to be able to do?" [with sub-sets of "how many of those must we be able to do concurrently, vice consecutively"].
"OK, here's the bill for those deliverables." <<-- see how I got a trendy buzzword in there?
Seeing the bill, and the CAF sticking to it's guns - as opposed to we can always make it happen - I suspect they'd go back and revisit what they see as military necessities. Mind you, I assume that the trimmed list would still include Snowbirds, Skyhawks, Ceremonial Guard, 1.5 Military Colleges, LGBTQ2 projects [yes, it's in the budget and I had to Google since I wasn't up to speed with the latest acronym], LCol-commanded Militia platoons, etc, etc...
Of course, if.....IF....the CAF was honestly looking at what it is required to deliver, I bet we could divest a metric shitload of HQs, Staff Officers, the Army Intelligence Regiment, Air Defence and IA (if it's not worth investing and training seriously, it's obviously expendable), and duty-CWOs stapled to officers because "Command Team" has become a kharmic chant, regardless of whether there are troops to command. /hopeless dreamer
Gee, I hope I didn't upset any apple carts..... op:
* Discussing military requirements comes after a larger understanding of defence and security expectations, and who does what to whom?