[CaptainCrunch]

Alright, I thought that I would continue the discussion on Canadian Forces requirements, I wanted to shift my focus to the Land Services or Army. As it stands the Army itself has vast requirements that go from vehicles to personal kit to specialized vehicles to weapons systems. I won't be covering that all today obviously, but will spread it out over the next while as time permits. I wanted to start the discussion today with a focus on vehicles as its the biggest monster in the closet in terms of requirements. I'll move on to the other areas in the upcoming weeks, and then I want to have a quick discussion around veteran care and overall moral. I also think it would be wise to conclude this exercise around future missions and Canada's expected place in the world in terms of global mission statements.

Before I start with breaking down specific vehicles, I want to talk about mission.
It would be easy to say that the mission of the Canadian Armed Forces is a simple one, the defense of our vast nation and the people within it and the ability to respond to natural or man made disasters. However in the 21st century world we have seen an acceleration of global strategic agreements and alliances, because of that we've seen missions in Afghanistan where Canada took a major role, Libya and in Iraq and Syria where Canada has taken a secondary world. It's not hard to envision that global roles involving the Army, Navy and Airforce will continue to accelerate in the face of emboldened asymmetrical terrorist organizations such as ISIS and the various Al Qaeda splinter groups. When combined with the primary mission of defending our nation, the rise in requirements for arctic defense contingency plans and the requirements to be able to react to multiple simultaneous disasters it becomes clear that the Canadian Forces has to have a flexible, well supported and responsive military.

In terms of overall visibility the army isn't as much defined by the individual troops as much as the vehicles they arrive in. Canada was forced to do crash upgrades and purchases to support our mission in Afghanistan, and while it looks good on paper, the long deployments in the harsh environment of Afghanistan actually accelerated the dreaded rust out of the Canadian Forces Land Services.


So let's breakdown Canada's military vehicles


Combat Vehicles


Main Battle Tanks



While some people felt that the high speed assault of Iraq by the American Army and Marines spelt the end of the Main Battle Tank as a front line vehicle, it actually demonstrated the overall effectiveness of the Main Battle Tank. The expected replacements such as the poorly conceived Stryker Mobile Gun System which married the wheeled utility of a armored fighting vehicle with the main gun power of a main battle tank proved to be a failure. The Wheeled Vehicle proved to be fairly easy prey for IED's and the difficulty in terms of transportation and rough terrain abilities exposed wheeled vehicles as a poor choice.

For Canada their contingent of various Leopard 2 tanks proved their worth in Afghanistan due to their ability to traverse difficult terrain with speed, their improved protection against IED and the superior main cannon which was far more effective against thick walled buildings in Afghanistan then the lighter armament on Canada's Light Armored fighting vehicle. As well the main battle tank and especially the newer 2A4 and 2a6m have superior protection against man portable anti-tanks weapons such as the various RPG's that Middle Eastern Groups seem to favor. While on paper Canada tends to look good in terms of main battle tanks with 59 deploy-able however only 16 of them can be considered to be true Modern Battle Tanks and those are the 2A6M variant which have the improved 120mm smooth bore gun, and improved survivability and improved armor to protect the crew especially against Belly damaged caused by road mines and IEDs. The rest of the Canadian Forces Tanks are made up of the older 2A+ and 2A4+ which feature significant gun, fire control and armor then the mainstay C2's they are a step back from the 2A6M. The smart move for Canada would be to either lease or purchase additional 2A6M tanks to replace the 2A+ and 2A4 series and create a common force strategy or look into the Leopard upgrade program of bringing the 2A4's up to the 2A6 standard.
The common question is why do we need these, wouldn't fast moving Light Armored Vehicles suffice? The answer is fairly simple, Light armored vehicles don't have the survivability in a heavy fire zone or ambush zone as a tank has. LAV were designed to deploy troops and support tanks but often do poorly on their own. The other advantage of the tank is the extreme range and punching power of the Main Cannon which far outstrips the 30 mm cannon and missiles featured on a light Armored Vehicle.
Light Armored Vehicles.

Recce



Coyote Recon vehicle. The Coyote was bought in to replace the old Lynx armored patrol call. The Coyote is designed to sniff out the enemy and provide battlefield information to the main strike force and does it very well. These vehicles were deployed in 1999 and saw service in Afghanistan. There are three variants of the Coyote, Mast, Command and Remote, they are designed to work in conjunction with each other to give a commander a clear picture of the battlefield. Canada currently has 300 of these indispensable vehicle, however Afghanistan and their rugged environment use are hard on these vehicles and Canada is moving to the Textron Tactical patrol vehicle, we are expected to start seeing delivery of 500 of these vehicles to replace the Coyote and Nayala in 2016 after delays to delivery.

More to follow later today