State of Canadian Forces

Have you seen 706 Snowy Owl Squadron at work?????

They're insane!!! They don't mess around. Seriously.

Yeah...I'm an air cadet and I can assure you that getting cadets to train the nation's armed forces is not a great idea...

lol

Lets start with the most important first, Canadian Sovereignty and security and home defense. This means a replacement or rebuild for the Aurora, more coastal warfare/patrol boats ie: Kingston on continuous duty not just for reserve training. Get the diesel subs going ASAP, great deterrent.
Rapid response NBC teams across the country. A means to move men and material up to the Arctic Circle in a hurry(Iceland wants it, oil reserves?).

Next protection of Canadian citizens abroad, you need strategic airlift (it doesnt matter whick kind of plane we get if we have to wait ten years for a decision), some form of tactical sealift (proposed joint support ship) and rapidly deployable forces (we have).

Next our Global role (that is when the Gov't decides what that will be).
You need a joint mutli role tailorable task force that can be rapidly deployed and supported by both national and multi-national forces.
We have what we need we just need more of it, with the best equipment
that can be bought and the best training available.

Note there is no such thing as a "Peacekeeper". A peacekeeper is a soldier who is told he can't shoot until he is shot at.

If we had a quick insertion team of 100- 500 JF2 with a DART of around 1000- 2000 men for quick depolyment around the world. 1000 or so support and logistics troops and about 2000 that would stay at home and rotate in. This is before the regular army of course. These guys main job would be to protect Canadian interests at home but be dispatched at a moments notice if needed elsewhere.
quick strike in and out.
we don't need an aircraft carrier.. what we need are proper aircraft to airlift men in and out of combat zones. we also need proper equipment when the arrive at the battlefield.... those Illtis jeeps should be put on ebay.

like the idea of buying Russian equipment. Why don't we buy a few then get GM here in Canada to do the rest.
Or we could just turn to the Germans again.. they've always had the best stuff.
Build the stuff at home under license.. the germans make money.. everyone is happy..

Airborne coming back? Since I can't find the link I'll just post the report.

By SCOTT TAYLOR / On Target

LAST TUESDAY, with as much fanfare and advance hype as Prime Minister Paul Martin's wounded minority government could muster, the Liberals' long awaited policy review on Defence and international affairs was made public.

Initiated back in 2003 when the Liberals governed with a firm majority, the policy review had quickly become the standby response to explain the government's inaction on Defence procurements.

No matter what shortcomings were revealed in the national press - helicopters, armoured vehicles, uniforms, etc. - the Defence minister of the day simply had to look bored, hold out his hands, and explain in a condescending manner: "We are conducting a full-scale policy review, which is due to be released in the fall of 2004."

However, by the time that magical date finally came and went, the Liberals had taken a beating at the polls and were left clinging to a fragile minority. Then, Martin's staffers began "leaking" out word to the Ottawa press corps that the review conducted was "unacceptable" and that a complete rewrite was in the works.

The date of release of the new white paper was pushed back to as late as the spring of 2006. Then along came a series of damaging allegations at the Gomery inquiry.

With testimony of kickbacks and corruption in the sponsorship scandal, public support for the Liberals plunged and the opposition parties started talking about bringing down the minority government.

In a desperate attempt to demonstrate to Canadians that his cabinet could still effectively govern (or possibly to deflect attention away from the Gomery inquiry), Paul Martin rushed out the policy review.

When details of this much-anticipated, two-year blueprint for Canada's national Defence and Foreign Affairs policies was revealed, it was found to be lacking one important criterion: details.

Despite this, newly appointed Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier was his charming best as he carefully walked the media through the Liberals' proposals.

As previously outlined at his change of command ceremony, Hillier intends to establish a central command structure to better facilitate operations at home and abroad, purchase ("off the shelf" if possible) vital equipment such as strategic airlift planes and heavy-lift helicopters, and expand the capability of the elite JTF2 commandos.

It was again announced that the Canadian Forces will recruit an additional 5,000 regular troops and add another 3,000 reservists to their ranks over the next five years. After all of these previously publicized initiatives were reiterated, journalists were left scratching their heads and asking: "So what's new in here?"

Well, one of the few nuggets of heretofore unannounced "new" developments turns out to be another case of Back to the Future (or of history repeating itself).

In addition to increasing the manning levels of the JTF2 and adding to its integral combat support, transportation and intelligence capability, General Hillier talked about the establishment of an elite battalion to augment the commandos.

This new unit would be based on a light infantry battle group, manned with the fittest and most dedicated soldiers, and would need to be highly mobile in order to serve as a rapid reaction force to global hot spots.

So let's see now. "Light infantry" means no armoured vehicles, and "rapid deployment" would best be facilitated by paratroops.

In other words, the Liberal government is planning to re-establish the very same airborne regiment it disbanded in disgrace almost exactly 10 years ago.

After the Canadian Airborne Regiment's disbandment, the army brass maintained a limited airborne capability by forming three separate parachute "jump" companies.

These were attached to the light battalions of their parent regiments in the Royal Canadian Regiment, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and the Royal 22nd (Vandoos) Regiment.

This very same system of far-flung jump companies had been attempted in the 1950s until it was deemed to be "unworkable." The solution was to create a single airborne regiment to fill the hole as Canada's rapid reaction force.

While many criticize the Liberals for the military's decline, it was only the last generation of Liberal politicians who emaculated the Forces. Here's some examples from the last century; Laurier created the Royal Canadian Navy instead of just handing over money for 2 battleships to the UK like the Tories wanted to. Mackenzie King began a massive rearmament program in 1936. St. Laurent built a huge air force, navy and committed ground forces to Europe and Korea, as well as funded the Arrow, ironically cancelled by the Tories. And Lester Pearson created 'peacekeeping' as we know and spent a fortune on the CF.

Is the lack of interest in the Forces entirely the Liberals fault? Not really. While there has been some prejudice against the military by recent Liberal governments, Canadians as a whole have had other priorities, like health care, employment, our ballooning national debt and deficits throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

In a 1995 Macleans/CBC poll, only 1% of Canadians thought defence spending was an issue. Unemployment (31%), the deficit (15%) and national unity (9%) were the top 3 issues. Americans weren’t the only people looking for a ‘peace dividend’ after the collapse of the USSR. The reality is that the Liberals gave us what we asked for.

I think the basic minimum we need to exert some real sovereignty is an enlarged navy with additional Kingston class MCDVs or even missile boats like the Norwegian Skjold class. At least one (preferably two) icebreakers capable of operating in the Arctic year-round are also needed. Development of a network similar to the SOSUS system in the Northwest passage could be another option.

Our air force needs a small fleet (6-10) of cargo planes. While they are expensive, we can lease them instead of buying them as the Brits have done (C-17s). We can even use 'downtime' to airlift equipment for allies who don't have such planes. Even the USA has told us they would consider 'renting' our planes when weren't using them.

As for the army, the easiest way to help them maintain tempo is to give them more troops. A typical reservist serves for 35 days a year, while a Regular Forces soldier serves for 250. Theoretically, this means you can have 6 reservists for every Regular Forces soldier. Of course there are extra expenses for equipment and bases, but this would also be necessary if you expanded the Reg Forces too. Double the reserves and Reg Force units have much more flexibility.

Sapper, once again you have taken the words right out of my mouth PDT_Armataz_01_37

Some are going on tours and I'm going to be one of them soon, but it is a small part of them ( about 10 or 15 % ? ). The army in general doesn't really like the reservists because their training is shorter and less intensive than the regular forces. IMHO the reservist recruits should be trained all along with the regular forces, the same training and the same intensity.

Damien, it is not so much that we don't like you, however, a few reservists have given the bunch of you a bad name, like with anything, it only takes a few with attitude problems to ruin it for the bunch, now if reserves were to come on deployments/EX whatever with the "I am here to learn" attitude rather than the "I do for a hobby what you do for a living" attitude that I have seen so much, I am sure things would run much smoother. Have a safe deployment PDT_Armataz_01_36

You got a point, and since most reservists are going on tour just for $$$, I guess we can't blame the reguls.

Sadly, that is exactly it, Reg force guys who want to soldier and are young and keen often get pulled off of a tour with their Battallion last minute so the government can get some reserves who are usually in it to make cash for school can go on tour, one of the big reasons we lose a fucking pile of good young soldiers to release.

That is exactly why we should make our reserve forces more like the US National Guard, In my opinion. But I heard that they are going to give D&S missions to the reserve entirely so the regular forces can focus on "true" missions and wont take any reservists with them anymore. Anyway I'm going to know soon, because after my first tour I'll join the regs.

That was a wild ass suggestion from a couple years back. It was shit-canned immediately and it seems to be suffering from the lingering death syndrome.