Retired Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie was on CBC radio’s The House on Saturday to speak about his view of problems with increased spending on ‘corporate services’ and ‘institutional overhead’. You can hear the interview on-line here. Leslie continues to argue that the tactical units of the army must be maintained and […]
Transformation
10 posts
The latest revelation in the F-35 saga came last week when Lee Berthiaume reported that the military would be unable to refuel the new fighter while in flight using existing equipment. More stunning yet was the finding in the KPMG report that the government and the military intend to “rely […]
* Moderator’s Note: This message was sent out last week by email to all naval addresses in conjunction with the announcement of major changes to the national-level CF headquarters structure. “Many of you may have heard that important changes were coming for the RCN. Today these changes are being officially […]
*Moderator’s Note: This article was originally published in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald on 01 October 2011. It is reprinted here with the permission of the author. Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, DND’s outgoing Chief of Transformation, submitted his “Report on Transformation 2011” at an interesting nexus: there are recurring fiscal crises in the […]
An article in the January 2012 issue of Proceedings by Senior Chief Jim Murphy, USN (ret.), proposes an interesting approach to meeting budgetary cuts that will inevitably need to be made among the American sea services. It is available free to non-subscribers here. Murphy suggests a true top-to-bottom ‘zero-based’ review […]
Commentary on this site and others have suggested that General Leslie’s report was not transformational enough in that it has not set the course for a recasting of the Canadian Forces to deal with future challenges. I believe these comments to have also missed the mark. General Leslie has provided […]
Here are some impressions from my analysis of the Report on Transformation 2011. This report is not about transformation. It is too narrowly focused on headquarters organization to be a serious transformational plan. The only really meaningful recommendation it comes up with is combining the four national-level headquarters (Domestic, Expeditionary, […]
One of my favourite definitions about the meaning of military transformation comes from General Peter J. Schoomaker, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 01 August 2003 to 10 April 2007. This is how he defined transformation in a speech made on 11 April 2005: “Transformation is a journey. It […]
Rumours have been swirling ever since Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie submitted his report on transformation to the CDS that there was big trouble brewing. John Ibbitsen writes in today’s Globe and Mail, in an article entitled “Discord over cuts leaves direction of Canadian military up in the air,” that “Senior officers […]
[12 April 2007] Paul Kennedy’s article, “To Rule the Waves: the Rise and Fall of Navies,” is ‘crying wolf’ by only addressing the question of declining numbers of destroyers and frigates in the Royal Navy. The bigger picture tells a much different story. In fact, the RN is in the […]