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 […]
naval doctrine
13 posts
*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 […]
* Moderator’s Note: This post appeared originally in the Letters to the Editor section of The Washington Times on 30 March 2007. It is no longer available on-line. A large part of Canadian naval history is traced back to that of the Royal Navy. The history of that organization is […]
*Moderator’s Note: Portions of this article appeared originally as “The History and Theory of Naval Effects-Based Operations” in Effects-Based Approaches to Operations: Canadian Perspectives, Alan English and Howard Coombs, eds., Canadian Forces Aerospace Warfare Centre, 2008, pp. 95-102. Placing warships into groups for the accomplishment of tasks is indeed a […]
A quick internal polling of the CFPS fellowship on the question posed in this article’s title resulted in a general consensus that the navy’s name change is appropriate but not especially significant. The Canadian naval connection to the crown was not removed by dropping the ‘RCN’ name for the navy […]
Brian Stewart, Senior Fellow with the Monk Centre at the University of Toronto, has raised the spectre of an internal struggle within DND over how to allocate the capital portion of the defence budget. In his article entitled “$30B fighter jets just the start of defence-spending boom” (CBC News, 06 […]
The Hong Kong Shipowners’ Association (HKSOA) has released what is described as “a furious statement” condemning the current organizational construct and tactical practices employed by naval forces to prevent piratical activities off the Horn of Africa. They accuse the international community of “tolerating piracy instead of eliminating attacks” and “sending […]
In my post on 7 December, entitled “Whether to Protect the Sea or Protect the Ships,” I argued that efforts to create defended lanes are a “misguided effort at sea control” and that history has shown repeatedly that they are based on a flawed operational concept. I did not realize […]
The capture by pirates of another super tanker, the Greek-owner MV Maran Centurus, approximately 800 nm off the coast of Somalia was reported this week by the BBC. The BBC report quotes Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank Rashid Abdi as saying “the world's navies has made little […]
On reading reports and scanning the video of the recent U.S. Navy - Iranian Revolutionary Guard incident in the Straits of Hormuz I was struck by how restrained the American forces were and how rash the Iranian. The Revolutionary Guards broadcast their hostile intent on the radio, manoeuvered to deploy […]