The announcement on the evening of Friday, August 22, 2008 of the cancellation of the JSS procurement should have been no surprise to any observer of naval and military affairs. The proposed ships were too innovative and too complex to succeed in the Canadian political and military environment. In a […]
amphibious
20 posts
The unexpected press release announcing the termination of procurement processes for two new types of ships for the Canadian Coast Guard and Navy was no doubt a heavy blow. And for the perennially under funded Coast Guard, the indefinite delay for the twelve new patrol ships they'd been counting on […]
The government, national defence, naval priorities and expeditionary requirements have not been well served by explanations for reconsideration of the approved JSS program given the economic importance and operational urgency in replacement of the old fleet supply vessels. These have focused on bids that have greatly exceeded a badly miscalculated budget for capital and support allowances. This was set in the face […]
I was the communications officer on HMCS Protecteur when she was deployed to East Timor in 1999. While we did yeoman work supporting forces ashore with fuel, stores and an ‘RnR’ platform for allied troops, our many shortcomings were painfully obvious. We could not communicate with our own troops ashore, […]
It seems to me that Airedale is expressing frustration at the lack of a comprehensive explanation by the navy about how the future fleet plans make it any better able to meet the new security demands than it is currently capable of doing. That there is a continuity in Canadian […]
Airedale presents an argument heard all too often in Canada, not just in academic common rooms or their virtual equivalents such as this forum, where there is a certain expectation to set up false dichotomies for the purpose of debate, but also in places of political and military power where […]
Our earlier discussion about the sensibility of addition another SSN to the appropriations this year, and the lack of clear direction on surface fleet plans, seems to have more substantiation in the recent announcement by the Seapower Committee. Their decision to add three, not five, vessels, and the fact that […]
The report of the arrival of France's F.N. Tonnerre in Halifax should raise some issues for Canada. Tonnerre is a four-in-one vessel - helicopter carrier, hospital ship, command ship, and amphibious ship - that might have been a potential contender for the "Big Honking Ship" once touted by no less […]
Amidst the hoopla surrounding the leaked Conservative Canada First Defence Strategy and the subsequent series of articles by David Pugliese, one overlooked item was the proposed creation of a 250 member Marine Commando Regiment (MCR) based in Comox, BC. As described by Pugliese, the MCR will be a dedicated maritime […]
On February 22, 2008, the Ottawa Citizen published an anonymous letter, entitled "Navy Capabilities Slide While Government Sits Idle", attributed to a serving Canadian Naval Officer in David Pugliese's Defence Watch column. Mr. Pugliese thought it would be controversial and judging from the number of comments posted to the web […]