Personally Military procurement should be taken away from Public works, that department couldn't buy a roll of toilet paper without overspending and buying the 1 ply brand.
second of all, the Minister of National Defense shouldn't be some appointed party hack who's a political appointee. It should be the outgoing Chief of Defense Staff appointed to a 4 year term and reports only to the Prime Minister and not to the Party.
The current Minister of Defense should have been fired a long time ago, first because of his lying, second because Harjit Saijan is another bad Minister of Defense in a long line of bad Minister of Defenses. He's messed up every file that he's gotten his hands on, and he's just weak and captured by the party that he serves over the men that he's responsible for.
Its pretty clear to me that the management of Defense has to almost be independent, and no I'm not talking about things like national strategy or deployment, except that I believe that sending a contingent of troops into some of these blood baths just to make Canada look good to the UN is being carried out by people that are out of their bloody minds.
Having a Defense Minister that has just come off of being the Commander of Land/Air/Sea in a limited deployment or sunset job where he's not worried about staying just makes a ton of sense to me.
Having a Defense Minister that says basically give me a budget, and no we're not pissing away money buying used jets because that's just stupid. Or we're building the ships here because we need more voters here just makes sense.
How many more of these files do we have to see fricked up.
Lets look at the massive failures
Buying Ilitis jeeps at nearly triple their sticker cost from Germany because Bombardier.
The procurement of Helicopters that was scorched due to vindictiveness that we're still not seeing.
The Submarine fiasco, buying retired submarines because they're cheap and not making sure that they actually work.
The F-35 fiasco that became the Boeing Fiasco, that is now we're buying the used pinto's fiasco.
On top of that, how about sending troops into a desert battlezone wearing woodland gear because your Prime Minister wants to score points while not giving a crap about the troops that he's sending out to fight.
I mean even the Conservatives have to take a stick in the eye right back to the Mulroney days when he promised a re-investment and then reneged, kind of like the sense I get from this government who's kicked the spending down the road.
I personally don't give a crap about a made in Canada Solution, or pork barrelling for votes. I don't care if even one ship or plane or tank or APC is built in Canada. Decide on a strategy and buy the equipment to match the Strategy, and if the Canadianization of the equipment is required, either contract it to the original manufacturer. Or contract it fairly in Canada and don't give a crap about the political ramifications.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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So I thought it would be interesting to talk about China's military expansion.
Naval wise
China has commissioned
1 Aircraft Carrier (Lianong) - More of a training ship built from a decommissioned Russian Carrier as the Chinese figure out naval aviation
23 Destroyers of various classes including guided missile destroyers)
51 Frigates in active service
Slightly over 100 missile goats
100 sub chasers
What's coming
Type 002 Aircraft carrier - Moves away from the current ski jump carrier design and to an electromagnetic launch system which allows them to get heavier jets in the air. Currently undergoing testing and trials
Type 003 Aircraft Carrier - Probably a ways a way but will displace 85000 tonnes and is projected to carry between 70 and 100 helicopters and fixed wing aircraft including the J-15 and the J-20 5th generation fighter
Destroyers - 4 type 55 guided missile destroyers under construction, 4 Luyang III guided missiles under construction
Frigates - 6 type 054A multirole frigates under construction
Submarines
Ballistic Missile Submarines 4 Jin Class in service 1 under construction, Type 96 next generation ballistic missile submarine in development
SSN
3 Han Class still in service, (older and noisier boats)
2 in service 4 under construction, considered to be equivalent in radiated noise and sensors to a late Los Angeles Class boat
Type 95 Advanced SSN 1 in service unknown under construction.
Diesel Electric
41 older boats in service
13 type 39 Song Class, these are very quiet boats
16 type 39a/type 41 attack boats are designed as anti-ship cruise missile boats they bear little resemblance to the type 39 5 more under construction.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Interesting news out of Russia as they have ordered 10 of the TU-160M2 Blackjack. while its related to the original TU-160 that was produced in the 80's, this is a completely different air craft.
Its a swept wing variable high speed low altitude bomber, that's designed to be the fastest strategic bomber ever made with speeds past Mach 2. Its also designed to carry low observable extremely long range munitions.
This thing is designed to dash in, fire stealthy long range ordinance and dash out.
The first 10 are a test order with the expectation that the Russians are going to order up to 50.
These planes are designed not only as heavy strategic bombers, but to be used by Russian frontal aviation as carrier and convoy killers.
This has called into question the development of the PAK-DA stealth Bomber which was supposed to be deliverable in this decade. There's a probability that the TU-160 represents a tactical shift in Russian strategies.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Through 2020, the number of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) delivered globally will grow to more than 900 aircraft from the current 240.
he product of a US$400 billion (S$532 billion) weapons development programme – the most expensive in history – the F-35s are marketed as being far superior to other warplanes in areas such as stealth and communications.
While speed was imperative for fourth-generation fighters such as the F-16, Over said that this is no longer relevant for F-35 pilots, who can bank on their aircraft’s stealth capabilities as a combat advantage.
The new jets are less detectable to sensors as compared with older models. This means that pilots can approach their targets more easily, allowing them to strike first in a battle.
“Think of it like oxygen. We don’t think about oxygen, but if oxygen isn’t there, suddenly we become very concerned. So it’s like the stealth capability on the airplanes; they don’t think about it, but it enables them to do a vast number of things,” said Over.
Quote:
Citing a competition run by Denmark to select the most value-for-money fighter jet, he noted that the F-35 still beat its counterparts in the price category. Other aircraft that were in the running included Airbus’ Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing’s F/A-18F Super Hornet.
“We were actually surprised that the acquisition price of the F-35, was about 50 per cent less expensive than other fourth-generation airplanes,” said Over.
An F-35 currently costs between US$94 million to around US$121 million.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Sultan Erdogan is having a rough time of it in northern Syria against YPG/YPJ. Here, the YPJ take out a Leopard 2AM with ATGM. It must really make Erdogan's blood boil when the "girls" sort him out.
Today was a tough day for the Sultan's troops - 11 KIA today and another 19 wounded. The YPG apparently shot down a Turkish helicopter to rub salt in the wound.
I think the Leopard death count is pushing 15 now. The Turks really have no clue how to take care of their tanks FFS.
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"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu
I remember in training we were all so cocky about using our Light Anti-tank rockets and training with the Tow missile system because they were a lot of fun to use and made a huge bang.
And then one of the sergeants asked the question about the gun range of a Main Battle Tank. Which back them was about 4500 yards or more. Whereas the range of a Tow was less then 3000 yards, and you had to sit there and optically guide the missile in.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
This was interesting in an alarming kind of way regarding the German military . . . .
Quote:
Von der Leyen’s comments followed reports in recent months that none of the nation’s submarines were operational and that military pilots were borrowing helicopters from a private automobile club for training because so many of their own were in need of repair. Germany’s Die Welt newspaper reported Thursday that the nation’s military only has nine operational Leopard 2 tanks, even though it has pledged to have 44 ready for a NATO rapid-reaction force it is slated to lead early next year. The report cited leaked defense ministry documents.
Why does that blown tank barrel look like it's made out of fiberglass??
edit
n/m, it's just a wrap of sorts.
It's a thermal sleeve to provide a more consistent temperature around the barrel. IE, prevent expansion/contraction and, thus, provide a more accurate gun.
However, as you can see, it doesn't help when undisciplined tankers don't maintain their vehicle/gun.
__________________
"If you do not know what you are doing, neither does your enemy."
- - Joe Tzu
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