NavalMoose
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Does anyone know how many Flag Officers the RCN has active at this time?
PuckChaser said:Double what we actually need.
Oldgateboatdriver said:And someone who hasn't a clue how to run a Navy would know that ... how exactly?
dapaterson said:There are twelve major surface combatants in the RCN. That should have some influence on the rank structure.
Lumber said:We have thirteen major surface combatants, but you bring up a good point.
One time while serving with my USN brethren, they mentioned how "we almost have as many Admirals as we have ships!". At first that didn't seem like a big deal. With a Navy of over 400,000 full and part-time sailors, having over 300 Admirals didn't seem like a big deal.
But when you compare it to the Canadian Navy...
If military organizations are suppose to get leaner (narrower) the higher you go, and if the whole organization exists in order to put war fighting ships to sea, then doesn't it stand to reason that the number of Admirals would be less than the number of ships?
Also, you can use the DWAN to search by rank. I searched for the number of VAdm, RAdm and Cmdre, and we have a total of 2+9+14 = 25.
So, we have twice as many Flag Officers in naval uniforms as we have Major Surface Combatants (recall, not all of them are necessarily working in the Navy, i.e. RAdm Bennett).
If we add in the subs and MCDVs, we have something better than a 1:1 ratio.
It's not a dig at the Navy, the CAF overall has double what we need. Put your pitchforks away.Oldgateboatdriver said:And someone who hasn't a clue how to run a Navy would know that ... how exactly?
dapaterson said:You missed out on the four Div DComds, plus DComd CADTC, which takes the Army to fifteen. For a Regular force field force that is less than a division in strength (and much less than that when equipment is considered). The Army Reserve if fully mobilized would add perhaps a pair of Bdes (less equipment, of course).
There are many functions that can and should be civilianized within DND. Unfortunately, the military's uniform fetish means even constructive efforts in that vein get derailed; in the 1970s, a CAF with a much larger national and international footprint managed to have Infra and Environment run by a single BGen. Before today's consolidation, somehow that morphed into a civilian ADM, plus a MGen COS.
A ruthless culling of the CAF's senior officer corps is long overdue. Today's CAF (Regular Force) is 20,000 all ranks smaller than in the early 1990s, yet somehow the absolute number of lieutenant colonels and commanders has increased.
A lack of solid government oversight has permitted the bloat to grow, mostly unchecked. And since government attention spans are short, even when the problem is seen it is quickly forgotten; the 1997 Report to the PM on the Leadership and Management of the CF gave clear direction that is largely ignored today, since it called for a small number of GOFOs, and a rebalanced rank structure. No one would champion that direction.
Six BGens strikes you as too many for an organization of ~20K people? Hardcore, man.dapaterson said:No, Div DComds, not Div Comds. And CADTC DComd, not Comd. Five more, all Reserve Class A. Like COS CA Res.