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CaptainCrunch · 11-07-2024, 11:15 PM

Damning opening statement by Andrew Leslie today in front of the National Defense Committee.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1854669220962857419

We know that nearly half of the Canadian Military isn't operational.

We know that more then half of our ground forces vehicles are broken.

We've been deploying coastal defence boats (And they're badly built boats) for deep water deployments because the Halifax Frigates are beyond aged.

54% of out land vehicles Army are operational.
Greater then half of our naval vessels are not operational due to a combination of being broken or not having sailors to main them.
55% of our aircraft (Fighters, transport, rotary wing) are not operational and we have a fatal shortage of pilots. By the time the F-35's arrive we might not have experienced pilots to fly them.
We have no in theatre air defence systems.
The armed forces is short about 15,000 people, and while the government talked about recruiting the process of recruiting and getting kids into uniforms and trained is a joke, taking forever to process them in to the point that most people that try to join just give up.
We have at most 3 days worth of ammunition, we'd be reduced to yelling bang (Don't laugh when I was in in 1989 I went for one field excercise and for 3 weeks worth of training we were given 2 30 round mags of blank rounds and told to yell bang when we ran out. We got 1 day on the range where I got the honor of shooting 60 rounds in that 3 weeks. It was then that I decided to leave the Military before they deployed me somewhere and got me killed).
Our procurement process is a joke, It literally takes decades to buy anything. Our insistance on Canadianizing things to satisfy companies like Bombardier, or Irving Shipyards actually harms us and leads to quality control issues (See the coastal defence vehicles. The purchase of sleeping bags, The F-35 procurement, the design problems with the next generation River Class Destroyers).
Surprisingly I'm find with this, but for a country that brags about our duty to peacekeeping, we are actually hollow.
In terms of major natural disasters, it would be questionable if we can even effectively handle one incident now, and would need to beg for help from the States.

And before you jump on me. Yes a large part of this is on the Liberals who have rolled out incompetent and dishonest defence ministers like Bill Blair, Harjit Saijan and so on. But, the rot goes back further to the Conservatives under Harper, who threw up their hands and slapped some tape on the Armed Forces without any kind of strategic vision. To Chretien who literally wore out the forces with deployments while neglecting the men and equipment that served him, to Brian Mulroney who had big vision and no execution.

To me even if we do drive up our spending to 2%, its not going to fix a thing. Its beyond that, the Forces are rusted out, the pride in serving and the ability to recruit is gone, we pay for an armed forces (not really) and we got a constabulary.

11-07-2024, 11:15 PM	#2029
CaptainCrunch Norm! Join Date: Jun 2002 Exp:	Damning opening statement by Andrew Leslie today in front of the National Defense Committee. https://twitter.com/user/status/1854669220962857419 We know that nearly half of the Canadian Military isn't operational. We know that more then half of our ground forces vehicles are broken. We've been deploying coastal defence boats (And they're badly built boats) for deep water deployments because the Halifax Frigates are beyond aged. 54% of out land vehicles Army are operational. Greater then half of our naval vessels are not operational due to a combination of being broken or not having sailors to main them. 55% of our aircraft (Fighters, transport, rotary wing) are not operational and we have a fatal shortage of pilots. By the time the F-35's arrive we might not have experienced pilots to fly them. We have no in theatre air defence systems. The armed forces is short about 15,000 people, and while the government talked about recruiting the process of recruiting and getting kids into uniforms and trained is a joke, taking forever to process them in to the point that most people that try to join just give up. We have at most 3 days worth of ammunition, we'd be reduced to yelling bang (Don't laugh when I was in in 1989 I went for one field excercise and for 3 weeks worth of training we were given 2 30 round mags of blank rounds and told to yell bang when we ran out. We got 1 day on the range where I got the honor of shooting 60 rounds in that 3 weeks. It was then that I decided to leave the Military before they deployed me somewhere and got me killed). Our procurement process is a joke, It literally takes decades to buy anything. Our insistance on Canadianizing things to satisfy companies like Bombardier, or Irving Shipyards actually harms us and leads to quality control issues (See the coastal defence vehicles. The purchase of sleeping bags, The F-35 procurement, the design problems with the next generation River Class Destroyers). Surprisingly I'm find with this, but for a country that brags about our duty to peacekeeping, we are actually hollow. In terms of major natural disasters, it would be questionable if we can even effectively handle one incident now, and would need to beg for help from the States. And before you jump on me. Yes a large part of this is on the Liberals who have rolled out incompetent and dishonest defence ministers like Bill Blair, Harjit Saijan and so on. But, the rot goes back further to the Conservatives under Harper, who threw up their hands and slapped some tape on the Armed Forces without any kind of strategic vision. To Chretien who literally wore out the forces with deployments while neglecting the men and equipment that served him, to Brian Mulroney who had big vision and no execution. To me even if we do drive up our spending to 2%, its not going to fix a thing. Its beyond that, the Forces are rusted out, the pride in serving and the ability to recruit is gone, we pay for an armed forces (not really) and we got a constabulary. __________________ My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!