Canadian Forces heading for a monumental collapse.
Interesting column that goes with the stories earlier that the CAF can execute their primary mission anymore.
https://archive.ph/foYQf#selection-1135.0-1135.60
Quote:
The Titanic, says General Wayne Eyre, the Chief of the Defence Staff for the Canadian Armed Forces, is sinking.
The CAF is estimated to be short-staffed by about 10,000 members, Gen. Eyre said in October, and he wants to add 5,000 more to their ranks. To achieve this, he called for a “whole-of-society effort” for the military while it attempts to solve its recruitment and staffing problems. “We need to rebuild the Armed Forces, we need to get the numbers back up,” he said, “and we’ve got to do it with a sense of urgency and priority because it is affecting our ability to respond around the world.”
|
Quote:
Support for our troops is certainly necessary, but it doesn’t deal with the fundamental problem: The Canadian Armed Forces no longer reflect the principles and values of the Canadian populace, or of a modern Canadian work force. If this is not addressed, any reform will only amount to a shuffling of the deck chairs.
Military leaders like to say that “people are our most valuable resource,” and yet this most precious commodity has been steadily leaving for years. This is a reflection of CAF members’ sense that they are not valued; indeed, while leaders talk about the value of their people, they just as often talk about “the primacy of operations”: the idea that the missions assigned by the Canadian government come first – and thus, people come second. This is the contradiction at the heart of another popular military phrase, “mission first, people always.” This was felt in the ranks after Corporal Lionel Desmond’s 2017 murder-suicide after dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder; the ensuing inquiry left CAF members feeling that they might be callously discarded if they became seen as unfit for duty, and dumped onto the health care system.
|
Personally I think Ken is way off of the mark in his concepts here. It goes far beyond just the issue of personal fulfillment and limited deployments and unionization. What he's going to do is fill the ranks with the wrong type of people, Ken also doesn't understand the primary concept of basic drill, and building unit cohension, and dicipline.
So while I agree with him that the Forces are on the verge or are collapsing, I dissagree that his fix is going to create a larger mess.
Govermental neglect of capital investment means the loss of highly skilled pilots, naval personal and ground force personal, as none of these people are going to stay interested in serving a military that doesn't care about their safety and their ability to survive in the field.
The failure of multiple governments to properly deal with Veteran issues, and mental health has an effect of recruitment.
Ken's methods will actually drive out dedicated members.
Canada has failed the armed forces, after lofty promises of increasing spending, they've drawn back, our defense minister returned 1.2 billion in spending to the general accounts unspent.
Our air force is flying 50 year old outdated fighters as their primary plane. Our Frigates and submarines are end of life, and the replacements of the frigates are going badly, and submarines which are miracle machines for maritime defense have no replacement in mind and its rare that we can deploy our current submarines.
Frankly bringing 50 and 60 year old equipment into the modern battlefield is dangerous, and unsafe and shows a lack of care to the members that have to deploy.
Our ground forces by the way, our so called sharpened spear is in particularly bad shape. We are falling behind on armor, we've given away most of our artillery to the Ukraine, and the Canadian Military has no real ability to defend troops from air attack as Canada has no deployable air defense and early warning equipment.
Personally, I think the CAF is in a sunset, no government has the balls to do what must be done which is a comprehensive and large capital spend to modern the force and create a modern interlinked military.
At the same time there's a reason why some traditions need to be respected when it comes to training, but the Forces is losing any veterans who have actually been there and done that so training is going to suffer.
Trying to recruit members just to recruit numbers is going to be an abject failure. You still need to understand what makes a good sailor, soldier, or airman, and how to lavishly train them.
What I do agree with is yes, they need to be paid and housed better, and our veterans need better care.
But I think its too late.