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 […]
force structure
26 posts
* 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 original published in The Nova Scotian on 15 April 2012. Many of you are familiar with my role as the Commander of Naval Forces in the Atlantic Region. What you may not be aware of is that this is but one of four hats […]
All this week, reports have been coming out from the federal government about closures and reductions in federal service programs. Up until the various announcements, Defence Department spokespersons repeatedly declined to comment where the anticipated 1,000 jobs would be cut, citing the ‘rights’ of ‘Defence Team members’ to be advised […]
David Pugliese is reporting in the Ottawa Citizen, “Head of the Royal Canadian Navy says he has enough ships,” that Admiral Maddison said “he is happy with the number of ships the service operates and he doesn’t need any more.” This is a staggeringly uninspired statement by the institutional leader of […]
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 […]