January 10, 2023 | Local, Aerospace
Acquisition de F-35 : des réactions positives au Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean
L'annonce sur l'acquisition d'avions F-35 par le gouvernement fédéral a suscité des réactions positives.
May 13, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
‘Hard decisions are going to have to be made’: can vital defence procurements survive in a post-pandemic world?
By NEIL MOSS MAY. 13, 2020
'When you are trying to fix a fiscal problem, inevitably national defence is part of the way governments have tended to try and fix that,' says defence procurement expert David Perry.
In the midst of critical procurements that will set the framework for the Canadian military for years to come, questions remain on how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the oft-delayed projects.
The pandemic has already impacted the two most high-profile defence procurement projects with another delay in the replacement of Canada's fighter fleet as well as a reduced capability at the shipyard that will be building the 15 new warships that will serve as the backbone of the Canadian Navy for decades to come.
“Companies and government are always generally working hard trying to meet [the] schedule, and make up time wherever they can afterwards, but there's a limit what you can do to replace a few lost weeks of work,” said David Perry, a defence procurement expert and vice-president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
“The impacts are going to be tangible,” Mr. Perry said, adding that the picture is still murky about the final impact on the current procurements as defence companies are still trying to get a handle on the pandemic.
The high-profile $19-billion project to replace Canada's fleet of CF-18 fighter jets was delayed a second time in 100 days last week, over a bidder's concern over completing its bid on time, according to a Canadian Press report.
Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax shipyard, which has been tasked to build two central pieces for the future of the Canadian Navy in six Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships and 15 Canadian Surface Combatants, is running at half capacity with around 650 people working at the shipyard and 300 remotely, according to a CTV report. The two projects are projected to cost upwards of $4.3-billion and $60-billion, respectively.
Mr. Perry also said the impact on the procurements will depend on what stage the project is in, with less effect for those still in design and requirement phases and more impact on projects in the midst of construction.
He added that the impact will also depend on where the facilities are located, as the Irving shipyard in Nova Scotia faced a three-week shutdown, opposed to the Seaspan shipyards in B.C., which has continued relatively normal operations.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence told The Hill Times that progress is still being made “where possible” on current and future equipment for the Canadian Forces.
“While our focus must be on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain committed to the National Shipbuilding Strategy and other defence projects under Strong, Secure, Engaged,” the spokesperson said in an email.
“We continue to meet regularly with PSPC [Public Services and Procurement Canada] to address the delivery of ongoing and future major procurement projects, and to assess and address the impact of the pandemic on these projects. However, given that the extent of COVID-19, or how long this situation will last, cannot be assessed at this time, it is not yet possible to determine the impact this situation will have on our projects,” the statement read, adding that the focus remains on continuing essential services, which include “domestic operations and search and rescue.”
Former Air Force pilot Alan Stephenson said that there is “no doubt” that there will be “a huge impact” to defence procurement caused by the pandemic, pointing to the government's ballooning spending.
Mr. Stephenson, a retired colonel who is now a senior associate at David Pratt and Associates, said the problem with the fighter jet procurement is being compounded by successive governments' use of military spending to solve other problems.
“Now we find ourselves with ... fighters that will be over 50 years old,” he said. “And we'll be flying [the CF-18s] into the future.”
“COVID has changed the game,” Mr. Stephenson said, adding that the focus on the Liberals' 2017 defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, will still be present, but there will be fiscal questions of its feasibility.
“Hard decisions are going to have to be made,” he said, as the government will balance military requirements with economic needs.
Mr. Perry said historically when the government has needed to slash spending, it has looked at the military.
“When you are trying to fix a fiscal problem, inevitably national defence is part of the way governments have tended to try and fix that,” he said, adding that given the size of the defence budget, it is “virtually impossible” to address an economic situation without making some fiscal changes at the Department of National Defence.
But he said that historical pattern may not continue as it's a different kind of fiscal problem for the government.
“In a dynamic where you have real big impacts on consumer confidence and there's also, I think, fairly serious concerns about the availability of financing and liquidity in the civilian economy, potentially there's more of a room for DND and the Government of Canada writ large to be part of the economic solution here and not just part of the fiscal problem,” Mr. Perry said.
Former naval officer Norman Jolin, who served in the Canadian Navy for 37 years and commanded the Halifax-class HMCS Montréal, said the last thing the government will want to do is cancel projects that it has already announced at the expense of Canadian workers.
“The last thing [the government] would want to do in a world where we've lost so many jobs is to cause more people not to have jobs by cutting things,” he said.
Mr. Jolin compared the National Shipbuilding Strategy to the construction of a trans-Canada railway in the 19th century.
“This is jobs across Canada,” he said, adding that it is not just jobs at shipyards but throughout the supply chain including manufacturing jobs in southern Ontario.
Mr. Jolin said with the procurements under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the lengthy timeline will mitigate the pandemic's impact.
For the Canadian Surface Combatant procurement, the first ship isn't projected to be completed until the mid-2020s and the final delivery date for the entire fleet is in the late 2040s.
He said while there may be minor delays in the short term, it shouldn't have much impact on when the ships are delivered in the end.
But he said there is still much unknown about how the pandemic has affected the procurement process.
Charles Davies, a retired colonel in the Armed Forces who spent time as the senior director responsible for procurement and equipment management policy at the Department of National Defence, also said the long timeline on projects should reduce the impact of any delay.
“In the inherently long gestation periods of the major programs, the net impact should be limited,” he said.
Mr. Davies, a CDA Institute fellow, said now can be a time for the government to look to make key investments in capabilities that will be needed in the future to defend its borders while at the same time keeping the economy afloat.
He said unlike in the mid-1990s during the budget cuts under then-prime minister Jean Chrétien, Canada is not in the geopolitical position to allow its defence budget to dissipate.
“We're in a different world now,” he said, citing the “strategic environment” with more aggressive behaviour being seen from the Chinese and Russian governments.
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December 1, 2020 | Local, Aerospace
Canadian defense minister talks fighter competition and geopolitics
By: Aaron Mehta; DefenseNews.com 20 November 2020 WASHINGTON — When the Trudeau government took office in 2015, one of the first appointments was tapping Harjit Sajjan, a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan, as Canada's minister of national defense. Sajjan is now one of the lonest-serving ministers of defense in Canadian history. After an appearance at the Halifax International Security Forum, Sajjan talked with Defense News about the country's long-awaited fighter jet procurement, as well as the nation's future on the world stage. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. Regarding the fighter competition, the plan is to either downselect to two jets in 2021, or make a final decision in 2022. Where does that decision stand? How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted the timing and size of the program? I'm very happy with the progress of the selection for our next fighter. And it's gone to a very good stage where we actually have three companies. I don't know exactly — because the team there that does the analysis is independent — which direction they'll go, of downselecting or how that's going to happen. So we'll see how the progress moves ahead. I can turn to your direct question regarding COVID-19. We initially, obviously, just like anybody, had some minor delays because we had to shift a lot of the resources to the pandemic fight. But we were able to shift our people back into dealing with our procurement very quickly because, as you know, defense is an essential service, and making sure that those jobs continue was very important to us. So the delays were actually very minor. And all the updates that I've reviewed so far [shows] that things are actually progressing extremely well. So you don't see any delays for that program likely coming as a result of COVID-19 or anything else? Right now I'm confident that we'll be able to make up any time because the shift that we made. [We have some] very good people [who] are running these very large projects, so we needed to shift some of that talent to the COVID-19 fight initially, for good reason. But in a few months, we were able to shift those people back to this program. Canada's defense budget is set to significantly increase in the coming years based on the 2017 defense policy agreement. You've recently said this will still happen, but some experts said that given the economic impact of the last year and given post-pandemic priorities, the defense budget might end up either changing or taking a cut. How confident are you that the targets that have been set are going to be hit, budget wise? First of all, the security challenges that we face around the world don't change. And that's an important point for everybody to take note of, and it's something that we took note when we conducted our defense policy review. This is one of the reasons why, when we put this defense policy together, we wanted to have a thorough cost analysis done early on based on the capabilities that we felt that we needed, not only for the defense of Canada but to be good partners as part of this financial command at North American Aerospace Defense Command or the Five Eyes [intelligence-sharing alliance] and the work that we do at NATO. So we made a decision to fund the defense policy for the duration, which is 20 years. So there was a government-level decision to do this, to carve it out of the fiscal framework, and that should give assurance to people how seriously we took this from the beginning. We looked at any type of financial challenges that a nation might go through, but we also knew that we needed to maintain the defense funding because, as you know, in the past, defense policies have been put out, but the money has not been included, and they had to be agreed upon every single year. Based on that experience, I can understand some of the concerns that some of these experts actually have, but this is something that we looked at right from the beginning, and the reason why we made a government-level decision to fund the defense policy for the 20 years. So it can't be just a very quick decision to change the defense budget. But more importantly, one of the things — probably one of the most important things that we need to take a look at, especially as we deal with COVID-19 — is the economic downturn, [is that] the defense industry adds a significant amount of well-paying jobs. So it's very important to keep these investments moving because this is about maintaining well-paying jobs across the country and supply chain that we have, connected with our allies, especially with the U.S. You mentioned global challenges. Something that recently emerged is this idea of the “Quad” between India, Japan, the United States and Australia. Do you see Canada having a role in that, and would you want to join? I can see what that initiative — what it was trying to achieve. But let's keep in mind: We already had some good mechanisms where we were working with — so for example, with the United Nations Security Council resolutions on sanctions monitoring in North Korea, that was where nations came together from all the nations that participated in the Korean conflict, Korean War early on, where we decided to up our support for [monitoring.] We created Operation NEON in Canada to provide the direct support. In fact, one of our frigates just completed their work with monitoring, and we have a surveillance aircraft still in the region conducting that work. So the work that the Quad does — I think it's extremely important. I think we need to have a much wider conversation of not just looking at the Quad, but we need to look at how allies are going to come together to look at how do we support places like the Asia-Pacific region and our Association of Southeast Asian Nations partners in the Indo-Pacific region. So I think it's a good effort, but I think we need to look at even more thorough analysis and look at what are the things that nations can contribute. There's also talk about whether to expand Five Eyes, perhaps by formally including Japan. Is the idea of a formal Five Eyes expansion something you support? First of all, Five Eyes is probably one of the most trusted agreements that we have. It's not just: “You sign an agreement, and you're part of a trusted group.” There are some very strict measures that every nation needs to take in terms of the security architecture that's needed inside your country, how we communicate — that provides a framework. That framework also includes a set of laws about governance, as well. But it does not preclude us from working with other partners, and [partners] having greater cooperation with the Five Eyes. And if ever down the road there's an opportunity, I think that's something that's to be kept on the table. But I think Five Eyes allows us to be able to work with likeminded partners, like Japan, and we're already doing some great work as it is. We'll see where the discussion goes. It seems like you're saying you're happy to work with other nations, and already do that, but that Five Eyes requires such a strict legal measure that a formal expansion might not make sense. What I'm going to say here is that there's a lot of good work already being done. When you have an expansion, that alone would require a significant amount of effort toward that. But I think right now we need to take a look at how do we use our current mechanisms to create the effects we need. Because there is a concern right now, and we need to support our ASEAN partners in the Pacific. And so it's better to look at mechanisms that we have in place and work toward a larger relationship. You've made pointed comments about China and the challenge from Beijing. Where's the greatest challenge from China for Canada? The Arctic? The Pacific? Is it economic? It's not just one thing, or pick one over another. I would say overall, the unpredictable nature that China has created, that when you go outside the international rules-based order — that was set up for good reason after the Second World War, of creating predictability — it's the unpredictability that China has created that's giving us significant concerns. So everything from freedom of navigation to how finances are used in countries to bring in influence. About the most important, the biggest one for us, is when they have a disagreement [they will] arbitrarily detain citizens. So we have two citizens who are detained. Australia just, I believe, had an incident very similar to ours. These are some of the things that cause nations around the world to take a [concerned] look. So I wouldn't say it's just one. The Arctic, I'll be honest with you, it will always be a concern for Canada because our sovereignty is extremely important to us. We want to work within partnerships under international laws. We want to do this, but a pattern that's created in other areas has caused concern for us in Canada. There's a debate among foreign policy experts over whether Canada has been too passive. Does Canada need to take a more robust foreign and national security policy stance, or are you comfortable with where it is now? I would say our stance has been misunderstood, then. If you look at the last five years alone, when we formed the government and I became defense minister, we didn't have a consistent engagement in the Pacific. Now we do. We're officially part of Operation NEON, conducting sanctions monitoring; we obviously, because of COVID-19, weren't able to do this, but we've had ships in the Pacific conducting visits, doing exercises as well, or being part of Exercise RIMPAC. And also increasing our whole-of-government approach. We put a battlegroup into Latvia that we lead, [forces] in Ukraine, we actually increased our role there, increased our footprint with the coalition to fight ISIS [the Islamic State group]. And the list goes on. We've actually commanded the NATO training mission in Iraq for the last two years. So when you look at what we do, it is quite significant. But I think in terms of — you can look at it as passive or active. We have to take a look at what does each nation bring to the table. And I remember having a conversation with [U.S. Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis about this. It's about utilizing the skill set of your closest allies and how you work together in creating effects for our diplomats. And that's exactly what Canada has been doing: being a credible partner to convene conversations to be able to move toward peaceful resolutions to disagreements. I wouldn't say that we've actually had to step back in any way. In fact, if you look at the record of what we've actually done, not only we've talked about increasing our spending, we've actually increased our capabilities and contributions at the same time. Aaron Mehta is Deputy Editor and Senior Pentagon Correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Department of Defense and its international partners. https://www.defensenews.com/global/the-americas/2020/11/30/canadian-defense-minister-talks-fighter-competition-and-geopolitics/
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February 25, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land
The Canadian Armed Forces to host international partners in Nunavut
This week, approximately 350 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel will deploy to Resolute Bay and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut as part of Operation Nanook-Nunalivut 2020 (Op Na-Nu 20). From Feb. 24 to March 27, 2020, CAF personnel and international partners will work together to enhance and test their specialized Arctic skill-sets, and reaffirm their ability to operate in the High Arctic. Ranging from ground and underwater activities to complex logistical support, Op Na-Nu 20 will demonstrate the presence and capabilities of the CAF in the Arctic, and will improve our readiness to operate in the region: a key component of Canada's Defence Policy – Strong, Secure, Engaged. Operations like Op Na-Nu 20 also enhance Canada's ability to work effectively with northern partners and allies. “Each year, Operation Nanook-Nunalivut provides us with a renewed focus on our operational capabilities and effectiveness in the High Arctic. The North is a vast, harsh and unique place to operate, and because of this, careful preparations and close collaboration with our northern partners is key. Sharing knowledge with our partners and allies will allow us to be better able to adapt to new demands and challenges in the North, and address common northern defence, security and safety concerns in the High Arctic,” said BGen Patrick Carpentier, commander, Joint Task Force (North). https://www.skiesmag.com/press-releases/the-canadian-armed-forces-international-partners-nunavut