24 juillet 2023 | Local, Aérospatial

Canadian, French military planes ‘came into contact’ at Guam air base - National | Globalnews.ca

The Department of National Defence told Global News the incident occurred Friday on the ramp at Anderson Air Force Base "in which the two aircraft came into contact."

https://globalnews.ca/news/9853572/canada-french-military-planes-contact-guam/

Sur le même sujet

  • Canada's fighter jet debacle: This is no way to run a military

    3 octobre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial

    Canada's fighter jet debacle: This is no way to run a military

    Opinion: In many NATO countries, national defence is a bipartisan or nonpartisan issue. Those governments don't use defence as a political tool By David Krayden Last week the United States Marine Corps flew the F-35 joint strike fighter into combat for the first time. That same day, one of the fighters also set a first: crashing in South Carolina — fortunately without the loss of life. As military aviators would remark, crap happens (or words to that effect). The state-of-the-art fighter jet first flew as a prototype in 2006 and has been flying with the United States Air Force since 2011. The Royal Air Force in the U.K. also uses the F-35. And just this year, in a moment of sheer historical irony, the Royal Australian Air Force took delivery of its first F-35s. Why irony? Because just as Australia was welcoming its new jets to its defence inventory, Canada was at the doorstep begging for Australia's used F-18s. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan had come calling because politics had again intervened in Canada's storied but sorry defence procurement planning. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, not knowing what to do with the obsolescent CF-18s — ordered by his father in the late 1970s for a 1982 delivery — had been musing about buying some Super Hornets from Boeing but had decided not to in a peevish fit of trade retaliation. Of course the Super Hornets were only a “stop-gap” measure anyway, as both Trudeau and Sajjan emphasized. The contract to replace the entire fleet of aging CF-18s would be delayed again because Trudeau did not want to buy the previous Conservative government's fighter replacement choice: the F-35. But there's an additional irony here. The F-35 was not just the choice of the Harper government. It was initially selected by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien. The primary reason: interoperability with our primary allies. The U.S., U.K. and Australia would all be buying the F-35 so it just made sense. I was working at the House of Commons at the time for the Official Opposition defence critic, who thought the decision to participate in the development, and eventually, the procurement of the F-35, was a refreshing but rare moment of common-sense, non-political defence planning on the part of the government. Full article: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/canadas-fighter-jet-debacle-this-is-no-way-to-run-a-military

  • U.S. sent ‘blunt’ letter to Canada criticizing defence spending: sources

    26 novembre 2019 | Local, Autre défense

    U.S. sent ‘blunt’ letter to Canada criticizing defence spending: sources

    BY MERCEDES STEPHENSON AND KERRI BREEN Canada has been officially called out by the United States over how much it spends on the military, Global News has learned. A “blunt” letter from the U.S. government was delivered to the Department of National Defence that criticized Canadian defence spending levels and repeated American demands that Canada meet NATO targets. Global News has not seen the letter — said to have a frustrated, critical tone — but multiple sources have confirmed it was sent and received. U.S. President Donald Trump has long called for members of the 29-nation military alliance to beef up their budgets for defence. His national security adviser Robert O'Brien, who spoke Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum, said getting NATO members to meet the established target — two per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — is an urgent priority. “There are very serious threats to our freedom and our security and if NATO is going to be effective, and if we want to put our money where our talk is, we got to spend that money to defend ourselves,” he said. Nations including Canada agreed at the 2014 NATO summit in Wales​ to move towards the military spending target within a decade, he noted. “We expect our friends and our colleagues to live up to their commitments and their promises,” he said. He also praised Canada's plan to build and deploy Arctic patrol vessels. The North, he said, is going to be the new “frontline” of defence, as Russia and China have made it clear they are going to militarize the Arctic. One Canadian source told Global News that the U.S. is concerned that Canada does not take the threat from those countries in the Arctic seriously and wants the country to boost its contributions in that area. Just seven countries — including the U.S. and the U.K. — have met NATO's two per cent of GDP spending goal, according to figures released in June. NATO's estimates show Canada is expected to spend 1.27 per cent of its GDP on the military this year, up from about one per cent in 2014. Canada does fare better when you look at its defence budget in dollars and cents, said Dave Perry, vice president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. The country spends the sixth highest amount overall among NATO members on its military. As for meeting the percentage of GDP target, Perry's not optimistic despite planned increases in the defence budget. “Canada is not on a path to live up to the commitments that we were signing up for in 2014 in Wales,” he said. Last year, Canada spent about $22.9 billion on the Department of National Defence. But Ottawa intends to dramatically boost military spending in the coming years. In 2017, the government released a plan to increase the budget to almost $33 billion annually within a decade. Asked about the letter from the U.S., Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan touted this plan to strengthen spending. Discussions around “burden sharing” within the bloc have been happening for some time, he said. He noted that under the government's plan, the defence budget would see an increase of 70 per cent, a “significant amount.” “The relationship with Canada and the U.S., the defence relationship, I think, is even stronger now, because they see a tangible plan that we have created,” he said on an episode of The West Block that aired Sunday. “It's working, actually, extremely well.” The U.S. sending such a letter is an unusual, formal means of relaying a message, and it represents an escalation from previous attempts to get Canada to spend more on its military. That pressure has been increasing in recent weeks ahead of the NATO summit in London starting on Dec. 3. In fact, the same message has been conveyed in multiple ways to the federal government, a diplomatic source said, and NATO itself also wants to see more military spending from Canada. In July, however, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg suggested publicly he was happy with improvements in Canadian defence spending. “Under your leadership,” he said to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, ​​”Canada has stepped up its contributions to our NATO alliance including with forces for NATO missions and operations and increased spending.” But one former defence minister said the letter from the U.S. — NATO's leader in defence spending in relation to its GDP — was not a good sign. Peter MacKay said such a letter amounts to “a very serious diplomatic slap — not on the wrist, but in the face.” During his time in government, the former Nova Scotia Conservative MP said he had talks with defence secretaries regarding Canadian military spending and the country's goal of reaching two per cent. “Those discussions can be forceful and frank but they took place face to face,” said MacKay, who was defence minister for six years under former prime minister Stephen Harper. “Sending a démarche (diplomatic letter) is really ratcheting it up a notch.” https://globalnews.ca/news/6210623/canada-defence-spending-nato/

  • Canada spending $650 million on U.S. missiles for new warships

    9 novembre 2020 | Local, Naval

    Canada spending $650 million on U.S. missiles for new warships

    David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia News (dpugliese@ottawacitizen.com) Published: Nov 06 at 10:29 a.m. Updated: Nov 06 at 7:20 p.m. The Canadian government is spending around $650 million to buy new missiles and launchers from the U.S. for the Royal Canadian Navy. Canada is buying 100 Standard Missile 2 Block IIIC missiles and 100 MK 13 Vertical Launch Systems. The total estimated cost of the purchase is $500 million U.S., according to the U.S. government, which posted details of the deal on Thursday. The U.S. State Department announced it had approved the pending sale and Congress has also been notified. It is expected to proceed but there were no details about when the weapons would be delivered. The missiles will be installed on the 15 Canadian Surface Combatant ships, according to the U.S. Raytheon Missiles and Defense of Tucson, Ariz., will build the weapons. Last year the Liberal government signed a deal that would lead to the eventual construction of 15 Canadian Surface Combatant warships in the largest single government purchase in Canadian history. A final contract, however, has not yet been signed. Lockheed Martin offered Canada the Type 26 warship designed by BAE in the United Kingdom. Irving is the prime contractor and the vessels will be built at its east coast shipyard. Construction of the first ship isn't expected to begin until the early 2020s. But the Canadian Surface Combatant program has already faced rising costs. In 2008 the then-Conservative government estimated the project would cost roughly $26 billion. The overall project is currently estimated to cost around $60 billion. The $60 billion price tag is now being examined by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That report was supposed to be delivered to the House of Commons government operations committee on Oct. 22 but has been delayed. No new date has been provided on when the report will be delivered. “Approximately one-half of the CSC build cost is comprised of labour in the (Irving's) Halifax yard and materials,” according to federal government documents obtained by this newspaper through the Access the Information law. But some members of parliament as well as industry representatives have questioned whether the CSC cost is too high. There have been suggestions that Canada could dump the Type 26 design and go for a cheaper alternative since the project is still in early stages and costs to withdraw could be covered by savings from a less inexpensive ship. In 2017 then Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette, estimated the CSC program would cost $61.82 billion. The entry of the BAE Type 26 warship in the Canadian competition was controversial from the start and sparked complaints the procurement process was skewed to favour that vessel. Previously the Liberal government had said only mature existing designs or designs of ships already in service with other navies would be accepted, on the grounds they could be built faster and would be less risky. Unproven designs can face challenges as problems are found once the vessel is in the water and operating. But the criteria was changed and the government and Irving accepted the BAE design, though at the time it existed only on the drawing board. Construction began on the first Type 26 frigate in the summer of 2017 for Britain's Royal Navy. Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020 https://www.thetelegram.com/news/canada/canada-spending-650-million-on-us-missiles-for-new-warships-517604/

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