16 janvier 2024 | International, Naval
US Navy’s four unmanned ships return from Pacific deployment
Four medium USV prototypes spent five months in the region working with the Navy-Marine team and allies to push the limits of concepts of operations.
11 décembre 2019 | International, Terrestre
Analysis: NATO's defence budget formula is flawed — and Canada isn't going to meet its target
Trump is angry that a number of NATO nations haven't met an agreement, reached five years ago, to spend two per cent of their annual Gross Domestic Product on defence
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN
Another NATO summit brings another chance for U.S. President Donald Trump to browbeat America's allies for not spending enough on defence.
Trump is angry that a number of NATO nations haven't met an agreement, reached five years ago, to spend two per cent of their annual Gross Domestic Product on defence.
But that GDP yardstick has been rendered almost meaningless this year as the tiny nation of Bulgaria has joined the U.S. super power as being one of NATO's top military spenders.
Bulgaria's GDP is so small that by purchasing eight F-16 fighter jets in a one-time outlay of $1.5 billion, the country will now be spending 3.25 per cent of its economic output on its military.
Only the U.S., which spends 3.4 per cent of GDP on defence, is higher.
Using the GDP measurement means that Estonia, which has one of the smallest navies in the world with four ships, has reached the NATO gold standard of two per cent. Canada, which spends more than 20 times the amount in actual dollars on its military, is viewed as a NATO deadbeat.
For that reason, both Conservative and Liberal governments have pushed back on the GDP measurement, which was agreed to by NATO nations at a summit in Wales in 2014.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, arguably the most supportive leader of the Canadian military that the country had seen in decades, dismissed the notion of reaching that two per cent target, even though Canada signed on to the goal.
At the Wales summit, Harper's staff pointed out that reaching the two per cent mark would have required the military's budget to almost double, something that was not fiscally or politically possible.
Harper himself had come under fire from defence analysts who pointed out that under his government, the percentage of GDP spent on defence reached almost an all-time low of around 1 per cent.
But Harper countered that it's the amount of actual spending and capability of a country's military that matters, not the GDP measurement.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was essentially using the same argument Tuesday when he met with Trump at the NATO summit.
“I think it's important to look at what is actually being done,” with defence dollars, Trudeau said.
Canada only spends about 1.3 per cent of GDP on defence.
But tabulate the defence dollars actually being spent on the military and Canada ranks an impressive sixth among the 29 NATO nations.
The Liberal government's defence policy has promised even more money in the future. Military spending is set to increase from the current $21.8 billion to $32.7 billion in 2026-2027.
Trudeau also noted in his meeting with Trump on Tuesday the key role Canada is playing in NATO operations in both Latvia and Iraq.
Germany has taken a similar approach to the one used by Canada's Conservative and Liberal governments. It believes the amount of money actually being spent on military forces is more important than measuring it as a percentage of the GDP. Germany has also pointed out it is the second largest provider of troops for NATO operations.
Trump is expected to once again criticize Germany for its level of defence spending.
But the country does not seem to be in a hurry to make the two per cent goal. Germany currently spends about 1.4 per cent or around $64 billion annually. Earlier this year it told NATO it would reach 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2024.
The other issue facing the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces related to the two per cent goal is one of capacity. Even if the defence budget was boosted to meet two per cent, the department simply doesn't have the ability to spend that amount of money.
Around half the defence budget is for salaries and while the senior military leadership would welcome an increase in the ranks the problem they face is that young Canadians aren't exactly rushing out to join the forces.
The military could spend more money on acquiring additional equipment. But a lack of trained procurement staff has been an obstacle standing in the way of even getting approved programs underway.
Trudeau's explanation Tuesday about Canada's military spending being on a steady increase seemed to placate Trump, at least for now. The U.S. president responded that he views Canada as “slightly delinquent” when it comes to defence spending. “But they'll be okay,” he told journalists. “I have confidence. They'll get there quickly, I think.”
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27 octobre 2020 | International, C4ISR
With its new space centre, NATO seeks the ultimate high ground
Murray Brewster It's not the Space Force you may have heard about. Still, NATO's newly announced space centre boldly takes the seven-decade-old institution where no international military alliance has gone before. Most of its leading members and adversaries have sought individual advantage in the final frontier over the decades. And while the European Space Agency is a collective body, its civilian mission and its politics are inarguably different from those of NATO. That difference was on display this week as NATO defence ministers, meeting online, put the final pieces in place for the new centre, which has been in the works for a couple of years. "The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last decade," said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. "Some nations, including Russia and China, are developing anti-satellite systems that could blind, disable or shoot down satellites and create dangerous debris in orbit." NATO "must increase our understanding of the challenges in space," he said. Unlike U.S. President Donald Trump's much-hyped plan to make the Space Force a separate branch of the U.S. military, the North Atlantic alliance has been careful to present its space centre not as a "war fighting" arm but as something purely defensive. A 1967 international treaty commits 110 countries, including the United States and Canada, to limiting their use of space to "peaceful purposes" alone and prohibits the basing of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear bombs, for instance) in orbit. It further prohibits the militarization of the moon and other celestial bodies. Stoltenberg has insisted that alliance activities will be in line with international law. The rising threat of war in space That's an important point for Paul Meyer, adjunct professor of international studies in international security at Simon Fraser University in B.C. He warned in a recent policy paper for the Canadian Global Affairs Institute that the "prospects for armed conflict in space appear more likely than they have been since the days of the Cold War." Meyer said world leaders should think hard about what role — if any — arms control could play in avoiding a war in space. "Diplomatic solutions are not being pursued, despite the fact that irresponsible state conduct in space can ruin it for everyone," he said Friday. NATO has no satellites or space infrastructure of its own — but many member nations do and Stoltenberg said the alliance will draw on their expertise in setting up the new centre. Almost all modern militaries rely on satellites. In any major conflict between NATO and either Russia or China, the orbital communication and navigation grid would be the first piece of infrastructure to be hit. Not only does NATO need satellites for surveillance, reconnaissance and communications, an increasing number of military operations are being targeted from space. A good example is the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, during which 68 per cent of airstrikes employed smart bombs guided by lasers and satellites. Those "eyes in the sky" are also important for defence against ballistic missiles and (naturally) weather forecasting. Diplomacy and deterrence Dan Coats, the former U.S. director of national intelligence, warned Congress almost two years ago that China and Russia have trained and equipped their military space forces with new anti-satellite weapons. Those warnings have not been limited to the Trump administration. In the spring of 2019, Norway accused Russia of "harassing" communications systems and jamming Norwegian Armed Forces GPS signals. Last spring, the NATO space centre reported that Moscow had test-fired a satellite-killing missile. Frank Rose, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in a recent online policy analysis that outer space will need to be "mainstreamed" within NATO when it comes to planning and operations. He also argued that the alliance will need to find a way to "incorporate diplomacy into any eventual strategy." Meyer agreed and noted in his October 2020 policy paper that Canada is largely absent from any meaningful debate on the militarization of space. The Global Affairs website, he said, contains outdated material, is full of banal, non-specific references and is largely devoid of Canadian content. "Pity the Canadian citizen who wishes to understand where our country stands on this troubling issue of outer space security," Meyer wrote. It's not clear what sort of contribution Canada might make to the new NATO space centre. In a statement, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said it's important for Canada's allies to develop a strategy that "ensures a peaceful use of space while protecting ourselves. "Canada has been a leading voice in NATO about the importance of space for the Alliance and we remain committed to working with our Allies and partners to prevent space from becoming an arena of conflict." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nato-space-command-space-militarization-stoltenberg-1.5775269