August 8, 2018 | Local, Land
Vance’s plan to buy U.S.-made uniforms for Canadian military raises issues
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN My Postmedia colleague Christie Blatchford reports the Canadian military is looking for a new camouflage uniform for its 95,000 regular and reserve force members – potentially at a cost of as much as $500 million to taxpayers. Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance favours one originally developed for the U.S. military, according to documents obtained by Blatchford. In a seven-page briefing note on Vance's recent visit to Halifax, the general's senior staff officers last month wrote, “The CDS stated his desire to replace” current uniforms with the new “MultiCam” pattern now being used by the force's Special Operations Command. As Blatchford wrote, except for special forces, most Canadian soldiers now wear “CADPAT,” short for “Canadian Disruptive Pattern,” a Canadian-developed digital camouflage print that comes in several varieties, depending on the environment (desert, temperate, Arctic, etc.) and for which the Canadian government has a copyright and trademark. The uniforms are manufactured by a number of Canadian companies. Full Article: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/vances-plan-to-buy-u-s-made-uniforms-for-canadian-military-raises-issues