CF Transformation and Upcoming Election

[McG]

This thread is getting stupid and no longer seems related to the initial question.  The government in power sets policy.  Therefore, it is the perogative of whoever forms the next government to stop the current transformation path that the CF is following.  That does not mean that everything reverts to how it was last year.  It could mean that a new vision for CF transformation is impossed (for better or worse).

Instead of launching to the conclusion that "dumb politicians" will feel there is no need for a military, maybe we could have at least looked at transformation and identified those asspects which we feel are so important that we would want any new government to keep.  Are there elements we'd like changed/added/thrown-out?  We had a few good threads looking in this direction.

In all honesty, if the Boogeymen in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, etc are our biggest worry then it is the RCMP and CSIS that need the money more.  At the same time, when a nation looks at terrorist attacks, organized and/or launched against others from within its boarders, and deciedes those attacks are not its problem; that country will very soon find itself the target of the countries that were hit by the terrorists (just look at Afghanistan).  But, lets get the thread back to CF transformation.  What should the politicians do?

 

[PViddy]

Well,  to build upon my initial post, i hope the answer will be nothing.  If a new party is elected into office, i hope they will stay the course on the current direction the CF is heading.  I believe we are actually making some progress in terms of getting the equipment that soldiers really need to do their job.  I think that generally the Canadian public see it this way as well.  It will be interesting to see what the various parties do to address this issue in the upcoming election.  I will be paying close attention.

 

[R0B]

I'm getting the feeling here you'd like to see the CF, whose primary mandate it is to protect the borders of our nation and it's soverignty - possibly with their lives - , disbanded with all resulting monies saved going to hire enough police officer's to do the job.

Not at all, I'm just saying that terrorism is a negligible threat; it isn't the prerogative of the Canadian Forces to investigate or arrest terrorists within Canada.

I'd like to see the Canadian Forces' budget increased so that more money can be invested into training and equipment, namely, to allow for aging hardware to be replaced more frequently.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Looks to me like transformation has enough kinetic energy that the snake may just swallow the hog, only with less perceptible compressions over the next few weeks and months. 

 

[McG]

The "terrorism tangent" has moved: http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/36693/post-298881.html#msg298881

 

[a_majoor]

The biggest problem with CF transformation is the fact we are building from such a small foundation.

The promised 5000 reg and 3000 reserve troops cannot be trained and integrated into the CF in less than five years because we don't have enough uniforms and boots to cloth them, or instructors to train them. Infanteer sent me a link about the US Marines developing a new operational concept called Distributive Operations:
http://www.mcwl.quantico.usmc.mil/SV/SV_DO.cfm which depends on platoons having a vast increase in communications means among other things; we have a hard time training for conventional ops with the limited amount of kit we have, much less being in a position to attempt transformational initiatives.

There seems to be no overarching concept or doctrine for transformation, but rather a series of well meaning attempts to correct long overdue deficiencies in particular areas without tying it all together. (Just read the various threads on Armoured Recce in the Combat Arms and Equipment forums. We have vehicles which may be well suited to particular tasks being purchased, but the end result is a mis mash of capabilities which even tied together fail to operate in the high end of "Full Spectrum Ops").

This short term thinking solves short term problems (i.e. replacing ancient aircraft or getting "mine proofs" for Afghanistan), but leaves us short in the long run. Replacing old Hercs with new Hercs still limits lifts because of size, weight and range, if by transformation we want to extend our reach, then the C-130 is not the answer.

Transformation is going to take a long time, require some very difficult changes to take place at the doctrinal level, upset a lot of apple carts (both inside and outside the CF) and require a much more sustained and detailed selling job than has yet been attempted.

 

[Kev T]

  If a new party is elected into office, i hope they will stay the course on the current direction the CF is heading.   I believe we are actually making some progress in terms of getting the equipment that soldiers really need to do their job.   I think that generally the Canadian public see it this way as well.   It will be interesting to see what the various parties do to address this issue in the upcoming election.  

I pretty much agree with this. Transformation will take time of course and still has a ways to go but it's a start. I am just glad that we have now realized that a dramatic change is required and are actually taking steps, albiet little ones, but at least somethings happening. Yes even with transformation the CF could be a lot better in my opinion. The ball is rolling, slowly but at least rolling, and as long as it doesn't stop rolling then we should be alright (personally I wish it would roll a lot faster though).