Canada Refining Requirements for New UAV Fleet; Request for Proposals Expected Next Year

On the same subject

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  October 22, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Canada jumps closer to military-spending target thanks to COVID-19's economic damage

  The Canadian Press OTTAWA — Canada has taken a big leap closer to meeting its promise to the NATO military alliance to spend a larger share of its economy on defence thanks to an unexpected assist from COVID-19. New NATO figures released Wednesday show that largely thanks to the pandemic, Canada is poised to spend the equivalent of more of its gross domestic product on defence this year than at any point in the past decade. That is because the alliance expects the Liberal government to hold Canadian defence spending steady even as COVID-19 batters the country's economic output. Yet defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says the results are unlikely to appease the United States, as Canada continues to fall far short of its promise to NATO to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. "I think they'll be pleased to see positive momentum," Perry said of the U.S., "but it doesn't resolve their concern about where we are." All NATO members, including Canada, agreed in 2014 to work toward spending the equivalent of two per cent of their GDP — a standard measurement of a country's economic output — on defence within the next decade. The promise followed complaints from the U.S. about burden-sharing among allies and broader concerns about new threats from Russia and China as the two countries increased their own military spending. NATO and the U.S. have repeatedly criticized Canada for not meeting the target, with President Donald Trump in December calling Canada "slightly delinquent" during a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His predecessor, Barack Obama, also called out Canada over its defence spending during an address to Parliament in 2016. The U.S. spends more than any other NATO member on defence, both in terms of raw cash and as a share of GDP. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said the continued importance of increasing military spending would be discussed when defence ministers from across the alliance meet this week. The NATO figures show that Canada is poised to spend 1.45 per cent of its GDP on the military this year. That is not only a big jump from the 1.29 per cent last year, but the largest share of the economy in a decade. It also exceeds the government's original plan, laid out in the Liberals' defence policy in 2017, to spend 1.4 per cent of GDP on the military by 2024-25. That is when NATO members were supposed to hit the two-per-cent target. Yet the figures show the expected increase isn't the result of a new infusion of cash for the Canadian Armed Forces this year as spending is expected to hit $30 billion, up just over $1 billion from 2019. Rather, NATO predicts Canadian GDP will shrink by about eight per cent this year as COVID-19 continues to ravage the economy. The fact Canadian defence spending is expected to remain largely steady despite the pandemic is noteworthy, particularly as there have been fears in some corners about cuts to help keep the federal deficit under control. The NATO report instead appears to lend further credence to recent assertions from Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Defence Department deputy minister Jody Thomas and others that the Liberals are not readying the axe. Canada also remained 21st out of 29 NATO members in terms of the share of GDP spent on the military as other allies also got a surprise boost from the economic damage wrought by COVID-19. At the same time, Perry said the government has yet to lay out a timetable for when it plans to meet the two per cent target. Military spending is instead expected to start falling after 2024-25, according to the Liberal defence plan. Despite having agreed to the target during the NATO leaders' summit in Wales in 2014, successive Canadian governments have repeatedly described the NATO target as "aspirational." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2020. https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/canada-jumps-closer-to-military-spending-target-thanks-to-covid-19-s-economic-damage-1.24224303

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  February 29, 2024 | Local, Land

  Defence department reallocating $810M, in part to fund major equipment purchases | CBC News

  The Department of National Defence will reallocate $810 million in the coming budget as part of the Liberal government’s overall austerity drive, according to Federal Treasury Board documents tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday. Some of those savings are to be redirected into major equipment purchases.

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  May 7, 2019 | Local, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  Scheer government would seek to join U.S. missile defence program

  By Alex Boutilier Ottawa Bureau OTTAWA–Andrew Scheer will announce tomorrow that a Conservative government would start talks with the Trump administration to join the U.S. continental missile defence program, the Star has learned. While the U.S. has sought the Canadian government's co-operation on a missile defence program since the early 2000s, successive governments — both Liberal and Conservative — have refused. But two Conservative sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, confirmed Scheer will announce a future Conservative government would pursue joining the program, which seeks to detect and stop missile attacks on the U.S. and its allies. Scheer will also announce his party's desire to “modernize” NORAD, the joint Canada-U.S. aerospace defence system, one source who had seen the text of the speech said. The announcements will come as part of a speech Scheer is scheduled to deliver Tuesday in Montreal on the Conservatives' approach to foreign policy. The speech is the first of five policy speeches Scheer is slated to deliver over the next five weeks. Scheer has released little in terms of policy since winning the Conservative leadership in May 2017, leading to Liberal attacks that he doesn't have a plan, especially on the environment. The speeches could blunt that criticism, while giving voters a better sense of what the Conservatives expect to include in their election platform. In addition to foreign affairs, Scheer will deliver speeches on immigration, the economy, “confederation” and the environment. The issue of a ballistic missile defence treaty with the United States has been a contentious one for successive Canadian governments. In 2005, then-prime minister Paul Martin refused to sign a deal with the Bush administration. Stephen Harper rebuffed similar requests from president Barack Obama, and the current Liberal government was similarly cold to the idea in its recently released defence policy overhaul. “The threats facing North America have evolved significantly in the air and maritime environment ... and weapons technology, including ballistic and cruise missiles, has advanced tremendously,” the defence framework reads. “Canada's policy with respect to participation in ballistic missile defence has not changed. However, we intend to engage the United States to look broadly at emerging threats and perils to North America, across all domains, as part of NORAD modernization.” Canadian governments' reluctance to join the American missile defence shield has typically had more to do with domestic politics than national security or defence considerations, according to Eugene Lang, an adjunct professor at the Queen's University school of policy studies. “There's been a lot of political sensitivity around it for Canadian governments that were feeling it was going to be controversial for Canada to sign on to this thing,” said Lang, who served as chief of staff to two Liberal defence ministers. “That was certainly the case in the early 2000s with the Bush administration because the Bush administration's foreign and military policy was deeply unpopular in Canada. Now the Trump administration's military and security policy, I don't know if it's deeply unpopular (but) we know Trump is deeply unpopular.” Whoever wins the upcoming federal election will likely face increased pressure from the Trump administration to participate — and help pay for — a planned update of the U.S. ballistic missile defence system. In January, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will deploy a new space-based system for detecting and stopping ballistic missiles aimed at the U.S. and its allies. But Trump also said that the allies who benefit from that defence system will be expected to pay their share of the cost. With files from the Canadian Press https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/05/06/scheer-government-would-seek-to-join-us-missile-defence-program.html