Procrustes, 4 February 2021 All of a sudden, the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) is back in the news and there is chatter about the mounting costs of the proposed warship and what trade-offs might be made to deal with these costs. Why all the fuss now? The long-awaited cost update […]
defence policy
20 posts
The Defence Policy Review released last week is an ambitious commitment not only to the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, but to the support of Canada’s foreign policy goals as articulated just a few days before. Those whom Canada sends in harm’s way ought to have the […]
The Government of Canada received the report of Mr. Tom Jenkins, the Special Adviser to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services on 12 February 2013. The report is entitled Canada First: Leveraging Defence Procurement Through Key Industrial Capabilities. The ‘Jenkins Report’ recommends identifying and supporting ‘Key Industrial Capabilities’ […]
Radio Canada’s le téléjournal ran an investigative report Tuesday and Wednesday on naval ship procurement. The opposition parties are claiming that government incompetence could lead to massive overspending under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. The Radio Canada report uses the Joint Support Ship (JSS) project as an example to assert […]
After the initial flurry of comments following the appointment of Lieutenant-General Thomas Lawson as Chief of Defence Staff, some more measured observations about the duties and responsibilities of the position and the nature of the man are coming out. Professor Philippe Lagassé, a well-respected and balanced commentator, has written an […]
*Moderator's Note: This article appeared originally under the same title in The Ottawa Citizen on 17 May 2012. It is reprinted here with the kind permission of both the author, The Ottawa Citizen and CDFAI. Watch for an expanded version of this article in a future issue of CDFAI’s quarterly journal, “The […]
* 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 […]
Dr. David Johnston, Governor General of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces, published a fascinating vision statement in the form of an opinion article in the Globe and Mail on Friday, 17 February. He asserts that finding ways to coherently and effectively deal with the complex challenges of the […]
*Moderators Note: This post is extracted from an article published in the ‘Views and Opinions’ section of Canadian Military Journal (Summer 2007): 79-80. You can read the original article here. The idea of acquiring large amphibious ships for the Canadian military is based on the assumption that only a ship […]
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, […]