September 29, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence
Lee Berthiaume
OTTAWA — While the federal government is pressing ahead with plans to buy billions of dollars worth of much-needed equipment for the Canadian Armed Forces, the Department of National Defence's top procurement official says COVID-19 is further slowing down some already delayed purchases.
The past six months have seen a number of major milestones for Canada's beleaguered military procurement system, including last week's unveiling of the first of 16 new military search-and-rescue planes after 16 years of delays and controversy.
Procurement officials are also now reviewing three bids that were received from fighter-jet makers at the end of July as Canada inches closer to selecting a replacement for the aging CF-18s following more than a decade of political mismanagement.
The list of recent successes also includes Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding having delivered the first of six new Arctic offshore patrol vessels in late July, while progress has been made on a number of other files, such as the long-overdue purchase of new engineering vehicles for the Army.
Yet some of those milestones would have been achieved earlier had it not been for COVID-19. And Troy Crosby, the Defence Department's assistant deputy minister of materiel, acknowledges many other projects are being affected as well.
That includes the more than 100 military procurements — roughly half of them dealing with new equipment and the rest focused on building new infrastructure on Canadian Forces bases across the country — that were listed as already delayed before the pandemic hit.
"COVID didn't speed anything up," Crosby said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "I think everybody would understand that that's going to have some impact. And exactly what that impact is difficult to tell right now."
Delays in military procurements can have several impacts. In some cases such the CF-18s, the Canadian Armed Forces is being forced to keep using equipment that was supposed to have been retired years ago. In others, delays drive up the cost of the new purchases due to inflation.
The projects most likely to be delayed due to COVID-19 are those in production, Crosby said. Examples include the construction of new naval ships by Irving and Seaspan ULC in Vancouver, which have had to adopt physical distancing and other COVID-19 measures at their shipyards.
"For the projects that are at a stage where the work is office-based ... once we got over that initial hump as everybody had to as we moved toward a remote-work posture, the work continued," said Crosby.
"If you're in a shipyard and you're trying to advance the production of a ship given all of the physical distancing requirements and the health and safety considerations, that's challenging."
Crosby has previously argued much of the frustration around military procurement is the result of unrealistic expectations born of a lack of understanding and appreciation for how the system — which is dealing with more projects than at any time in recent history — actually works.
COVID-19 has also prompted speculation the Liberal government could start cutting back on its promise, unveiled in 2017, to spend $553 billion on the military over the next 20 years. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told The Canadian Press earlier this month that the funding is "secure."
Asked about the spending plan — which is contained in the Liberals' defence policy and known as Strong, Secure, Engaged — Crosby said: "Strong Secure Engaged continues to be our focus and it laid out a program of work and we're trying to get that program of work delivered.
"It's been that way right through this whole COVID situation. That hasn't changed anything. ... The people in the materiel group, the people we're working with across government, we're all seized with the program forward."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2020.
August 16, 2021 | Local, Naval
/CNW/ - Through the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the Government of Canada is ensuring the members of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) have safe and effective...
February 7, 2019 | Local, C4ISR, Security
Murray Brewster · CBC News Online attacks on Canada's financial system could become far more destructive as more militaries around the globe get involved in cyber operations, a security expert and former CIA analyst told a House of Commons committee Wednesday. Christopher Porter, the chief intelligence strategist for the cyber security company Fireeye, Inc., testified that as NATO countries share their expertise on how to defend against and defeat online threats, "major cyber powers outside the alliance" will likely do the same. The consequences, he said, could be dire. The West's imposition of sanctions on "some countries" has in the past been met with denial-of-service attacks on financial services websites, he said — attacks that have only been disruptive. "In the future, they may respond with destructive attacks aimed at permanently disabling financial services or altering data in ways that undermine trust in the global financial system, such as by delaying or impairing the trustworthy settlement of collateralized government debt," Porter said. "For countries sufficiently sanctioned and therefore increasingly outside that financial system anyway, there is little incentive not to do so during a confrontation." Where the threat comes from He did not name the countries he believes pose an imminent threat, but North Korea, Russia and Iran are widely known to possess sophisticated cyber capabilities and — in some cases — loose associations with groups of private hackers. The Commons public safety committee is studying security in the financial sector. Wednesday's hearing focused on online threats. "I am gravely concerned about the militarization of cyber operations," said Porter, who spent nearly nine years at the CIA and served as the cyber threat intelligence briefer to White House National Security Council staff. "(The) proliferation of cutting-edge offensive cyber power, combined with an increased willingness to use it with minimal blowback and spiraling distrust, has set the stage for more disruptive and destabilizing cyber events, possibly in the near future." The cyber espionage threat Canada faces is still "moderate," said Porter, but his organization has noted at least 10 groups from China, Russia and Iran that have targeted Canada in the last few years. His grim assessment was echoed by another private sector expert who appeared before the committee. Jonathan Reiber, head of cybersecurity at Illumio, an American business data center, said most of Washington's efforts to get everyone to step back from the cyber-warfare brink have gone nowhere. He also suggested that online militarization was inevitable. "Adversaries have escalated in cyberspace, despite U.S. efforts at deterrence," he said. The United States, Canada and other western nations must take a more aggressive stance to deter cyber aggression by "defending forward" and conducting offensive cyber operations to disrupt hacking, Reiber said. The Liberal government's defence policy, released in June 2017, gave the Canadian military permission to conduct those kinds of operations. "Nation states have the right to defend themselves in cyberspace just as they do in other domains," Reiber said. Mutual defence Determining the point at which a online attack provokes a real world military response is something that NATO and many western countries have been grappling with over the last five years. The alliance has a mutual assistance clause, known as Article 5, which requires NATO nations to aid an ally under attack. Liberal MP John McKay, head of the public safety committee, asked whether NATO's decision-making mechanisms are nimble enough to keep pace with cyber attacks. Porter said he believes the system is sound. The challenge, he said, is to get all allies on the same page. "I think a bigger issue is who is going to call for such a response and under what circumstances," he said. "In the States, I think, you're always waiting for a cyber Pearl Harbour destructive event." Such a massive attack is still less likely than a series of smaller events, he said, "a death by a thousand cuts" that might not rise to the level of provoking allies. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cyber-warfare-could-be-entering-a-new-and-alarming-phase-ex-cia-analyst-tells-mps-1.5008956
March 3, 2020 | Local, Aerospace
Saab today confirmed the four corporate partners that will be part of its bid for Canada's Future Fighter Capability Project (FFCP), which aims to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force's ageing fleet of CF-188 Hornet's with 88 new-generation fighters. Saab is leading one of three supplier teams currently involved in the procurement competition, which centres around the Saab Gripen E, Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets. Branded as Gripen for Canada Team, Saab's corporate team members for the bid include IMP Aerospace & Defence, CAE, Peraton Canada and GE Aviation. “We have assembled a dynamic roster of innovative leaders within Canada's aerospace industry, across multiple regions to offer the best solution for Canada's future fighter,” said Jonas Hjelm, senior VP and head of Business Area Aeronautics. “Saab is committed to securing long-term relationships in Canada that will create a significant number of highly skilled, sustainable jobs for Canadians within domestic and international supply chains.” Canada's evaluation criteria for its Future Fighter procurement is based on technical merit (60 per cent), cost (20 per cent) and economic benefits (20 per cent). In late-February 2020, the federal government announced it would extend the FFCP submission deadline from March 30 to June 30, but maintained its schedule to choose the winning bid in 2022 and have the first aircraft delivered by 2025. The 20 per cent weighting toward economic benefits is ultimately defined by dollar-for-dollar obligations – meaning, the fighter supplier provides Canadian companies with revenue opportunities equal to value of the purchased fighters. Defence Investment: Strong, Secure and Engaged Saab explains IMP Aerospace & Defence would contribute with in-country production and in-service support for the life of the Canadian Gripen fleet. CAE would provide training and mission systems solutions, while Peraton Canada would provide avionic and test equipment component maintenance, repair and overhaul, and material management. GE Aviation would provide and sustain the fighter's engines in Canada. https://www.wingsmagazine.com/saab-partners-for-canadas-ffcp-bid/