Remarks by Minister of National Defence Bill Blair at CANSEC 2024

On the same subject

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  August 20, 2019 | Local, Land

  Sole source armoured vehicle deal with General Dynamics costs double original estimates

  DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN The Liberal government is buying new armoured vehicles for the Canadian Forces but the sole source deal will cost taxpayers double what was originally estimated. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced Friday that the government would buy 360 combat support Light Armoured Vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, with the project costing $3 billion. The project was originally announced by the Liberal government with an estimated cost between $500 million and $1.5 billion. The plan was to award the contract in 2023 after a competition. But with the federal election looming the deal was fast-tracked by the Liberals, joining a series of recent defence-related funding announcements. A competition was jettisoned, replaced with a sole-source deal with General Dynamics, based in London, Ont. The deal includes a $650 million repayable loan, but the Department of National Defence said it had no details on that arrangement. It referred questions to Global Affairs Canada, which noted in an emailed statement that the federal government is “willing to provide a loan to General Dynamics Land Systems Canada to ensure the timely delivery of the Light Armoured Vehicles for our men and women in uniform. The Government of Canada is providing a loan to GDLS-C to support jobs and suppliers as GDLS-C navigates a challenging and dynamic international defence market.” The terms of the loan would be negotiated over the coming weeks, Global Affairs Canada added. The DND noted that the project costs include not only the vehicles but logistics support and new infrastructure to house and maintain the equipment. General Dynamics will provide the new vehicles in eight variants. They will be used as ambulances and in other roles such as vehicle recovery, engineering, mobile repair, electronic warfare and as command posts. The current fleet of armoured support vehicles is comprised of the LAV II Bison and the M113 tracked vehicle. The federal government said it is in the final stages of contract negotiations with General Dynamics. The contract is expected in the coming weeks. It noted in a news release that fast-tracking the deal would allow the Department of National Defence to save costs associated with maintaining or extending the life of the current fleet. The DND stated the contract was sole-sourced to General Dynamics as the firm builds most other armoured vehicles for the Canadian Forces and having a vehicle based on the same chassis allows for savings in maintenance and training. The company's light armoured vehicle is the core of the Canadian Forces armoured vehicle fleet. In addition, as the company has recently completed the conversion of the light armoured vehicle fleet to a new configuration so it has the skilled workforce in place, according to the DND. That would reduce the risk of delays in delivery of the new vehicles, stated the DND in an email. “For these reasons, we believe it would not be in the public interest to solicit bids,” it added in an email. General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada is also building similar light armoured vehicles for Saudi Arabia in a deal worth $15 billion. The Liberal government launched a review of that controversial contract after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Earlier this year a United Nations report determined that Saudi Arabia was responsible for the killing of Khashoggi who was a critic of that country's regime. Saudi Arabia has also faced severe criticism for its role in the ongoing war in Yemen, with allegations it has conducted unlawful airstrikes on civilians. A dozen organizations sent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a letter earlier in August, questioning the status of the review and pointing out that no updates on progress have been provided. The lack of such information has brought “the sincerity of the effort into question,” according to the letter endorsed by organizations such as Oxfam Canada and Amnesty International. Various groups have demanded the Liberals cancel the Saudi deal, which was negotiated by the previous Conservative government. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/sole-source-armoured-vehicle-deal-with-general-dynamics-costs-double-original-estimates

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  July 6, 2021 | Local, Aerospace, Security

  Federal plan to upgrade search-and-rescue choppers grounded by 'unaffordable' cost estimate | CBC News

  A defence department project to extend the life of the air force's search and rescue helicopters has hit a major snag, forcing senior officials to go back to the drawing board.

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  September 29, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security, Other Defence

  COVID-19 further delaying some overdue military procurements

  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. https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/covid-19-further-delaying-some-overdue-military-procurements-1.24211049