14 septembre 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
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David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia News (dpugliese@ottawacitizen.com)
Published: Sep 11 at 7 a.m.
Updated: Sep 11 at 2:01 p.m.
Candidates have been interviewed for the country's top military position but whoever is selected will likely have the tough job of presiding over significant cuts to the Canadian Forces as the federal government tries to get its fiscal house in order.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced July 23 that Gen. Jonathan Vance would leave the position as chief of the defence staff, the job he has held since July 2015. Trudeau said he expected a new CDS to be named in the coming months.
Defence and government sources say interviews for the position were held this week with a number of candidates.
Lt.-Gen. Christine Whitecross, who is heading into retirement, is considered the front-runner for the job if she wants it. Whitecross still has an office at defence headquarters at Carling Avenue and there is an interest in the Liberal government to have a woman in the job of defence chief for the first time.
The view that Whitecross has strong support within the Liberal government was further solidified when Trudeau took the unusual step on July 18 of singling out the lieutenant general on Twitter. He thanked the officer for her three decades of service in the Canadian Forces and for “being a strong voice for gender equality in the military.”
Among the other individuals considered to be candidates for the chief of defence staff job are Lt.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, who recently took over as second-in-command of the Canadian Forces, navy commander Vice Adm. Art McDonald, air force commander Lt.-Gen. Al Meinzinger and army commander Lt.-Gen. Wayne Eyre. Vice-Admiral Darren Hawco's name has also been mentioned. At least eight individuals were to be interviewed, according to various government sources.
But the new CDS is expected to face the challenge of dealing with significant budget cuts because of the financial strain on federal coffers created by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Spending on various emergency relief programs has resulted in Canada's deficit increasing to $343 billion this year, according to the federal government's economic snapshot released in early July.
Trudeau has acknowledged that the full economic impact of the pandemic is unknown. A second COVID-19 wave could further worsen the economic situation.
Department of National Defence deputy minister Jody Thomas said in a June 5 interview with The Canadian Press that she hasn't seen any indication defence spending, and the government's defence policy called Strong, Secure, Engaged, or SSE, will even be affected at all by COVID-19. There have been no slowdowns and the DND and Canadian Forces has been aggressively pushing forward on implementing SSE, according to Thomas.
Behind the scenes, however, there is significant concern within some quarters in the military about the cuts expected in the coming years. Some organizations within National Defence headquarters have already told staff to prepare for a rocky road in the future.
The Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence, with the largest source of discretionary funds in the federal government, is a ripe target for cost-cutting. DND's current budget is listed as $21.9 billion.
SSE has been billed by the Liberal government and its supporters as “a historical investment in Canada's military” since it promises $497 billion for the Canadian Armed Forces over 20 years. But the policy was always built on shaky foundations, as was the previous Canada First Defence Strategy brought in by the Conservative government and largely undercut by funding reductions at that time.
Despite defence analysts' cheerleading on both policies, the fact is that such strategies only promise future spending. There is no guarantee and plans can be jettisoned as fiscal circumstances change.
In 1994 the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien embarked on significant cost-cutting measures throughout the federal government as it struggled to deal with the deficit. The Canadian Forces and the DND were a prime target during that period. Equipment was mothballed. Military and civilian staff were cut.
The coming years could see a replay of similar cost-reduction measures.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
27 septembre 2022 | Local, Aérospatial
Le remplacement d’ici quelques années des vieux CF-18 par un nouvel avion de chasse, le F-35, annoncé par le gouvernement du Canada le printemps dernier, est une occasion en or que l’Aéroport de Gatineau n’a pas l’intention de louper. Il est temps pour l’aéroport de passer à la seconde étape de son plan de développement, affirme la direction de l’organisation aéroportuaire.
4 novembre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial
OTTAWA -- The federal government could be forced to buy new executive jets to transport the prime minister and other VIPs because of changes to air-traffic control rules in the U.S. and Europe. Two of the four Challenger jets currently used by the Canadian Forces for executive transport lack the equipment needed to comply with the new ADS-B system, which replaces radar-based air-traffic control with the transmission of GPS-based data. That will curtail the aircraft's ability to fly in the U.S. and Europe beginning next year. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has set Jan. 1, 2020, as the date aircraft will require ADS-B transmitters to operate legally in most airspace. Europe is implementing the system in June 2020. It doesn't make sense to install the equipment on two of older 1980s-era Challenger 601 jets flown by 412 Squadron, the defence department says. "Given the age of the fleet, investing in an ADS-B modification/upgrade would not be cost effective," the department said in an email. "We are therefore looking at other mitigation options. Timelines and costs will be determined once options have been selected." Buying new executive jets to replace the aging Challengers could be politically risky for the Trudeau government when it still hasn't acquired fighter jets to replace the aging fleet of CF-18s. Opposition parties of all stripes have assailed governments for what they considered profligate use of government aircraft in the past. "The executive fleet has been perennial issue where the country is penny-wise and pound-foolish," said David Perry, a defence procurement expert with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "We don't want to spend the money to buy aircraft and we have this bizarre expectation where you're taking the people in government whose time is most valuable and making them fly economy, basically, around the world." The continued use of older aircraft makes Candians look like "cheapskates," he said, comparing political opposition to the planes with the government's refusal to renovate 24 Sussex, the prime minister's official residence. The defence department projects spending between and $20 million and $49 million to "consolidate" the Challenger fleet, a figure likely based on acquiring used aircraft. Sources familiar with the operation of 412 Squadron say it would be difficult to meet its mandate with only two aircraft available to travel outside the country. The jets are used to transport the prime minister and Governor General and cabinet ministers, as well as the chief of defence staff, and visiting members of the Royal Family. But the jets are also on-call for medical evacuations, deploying advance teams with the Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART) and, on occasion, covertly transporting Canadian special forces personnel. With only four Challengers, the squadron is operating close to capacity and losing two aircraft could threaten its ability to perform these missions, the sources said. If the government chose to acquire brand-new aircraft, it might be tempted to consider the Bombardier Global Express, which is faster and has a longer range than the smaller Challenger, making travel to Europe and Asia easier. Most of the aircraft is assembled in Canada. The German government currently uses four of Bombardier's Global 5000 jets for executive transport. Other documents show DND is projecting spending up to $249 million to extend the lifespan of the five larger Airbus 300-series jets beyond 2026, including one that prime minister and his staff fly on occasion. Once dubbed "the flying Taj Mahal" by then-opposition leader Jean Chretien, the Airbus is antiquated compared to most modern commercial aircraft, though it does have a private room for the prime minister to sleep in. Flight crews on the Airbus run extension cords and power bars down the aisles to allow passengers to run their laptop computers. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/air-traffic-control-changes-in-u-s-europe-may-force-ottawa-to-buy-new-executive-jets-1.4668608
13 juin 2018 | Local, Terrestre
PARIS, France — Rheinmetall lifted a curtain, literally, complete with smoke and 80s rock, on its new Lynx KF41 infantry fighting vehicle at Eurosatory June 12, setting its sights on meeting requirements for both European and U.S. future combat vehicles. “Do current fighting vehicles meet the needs of future forces? This was the question that started Rheinmetall on a journey to develop a Lynx family of vehicles,” Ben Hudson, the head of the company's vehicle systems division, said at Eurosatory just ahead of the unveiling. Hudson said militaries around the world are rethinking requirements and it is clear that in order to meet all the demands of future operations and potential peer-on-peer conflict that a vehicle needs “to provide utility across the spectrum of conflict” and have “the ability to conduct peer-on-peer warfare against emerging battlefield threats.” The U.S. Army has set developing a Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) as one of its top six modernization priorities. https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/eurosatory/2018/06/12/rheinmetall-lifts-curtain-on-new-next-gen-combat-vehicle-with-hopes-to-spark-us-army-interest/