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Old 12-17-2018, 11:46 AM   #1021
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####ing #######s

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...oury-1.4946583

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CBC News obtained search warrant documents that were part of the investigation into the death of Cpl. Nolan Caribou, 26, on Nov. 18, 2017 at CFB Shilo. Caribou asked to be temporarily excused to deal with something personal that day. When he didn't come back, fellow soldiers went to look for him and found him dead.
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Old 12-17-2018, 11:50 AM   #1022
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Ugh, that points out to a major leadership issue.
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Old 12-19-2018, 08:46 AM   #1023
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Class Action lawsuit being prepared against the Government of Canada over the use of and continued use of Mefloquine the anti Malaria drug


https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/it-sto...drug-1.4223724


Quote:
Soldiers who’ve taken the potent anti-malarial drug have complained of a wide range of side-effects including depression, night terrors, aggressive behaviour and suicide.


Some experts believe that some veterans who took the drug may be misdiagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Old 12-19-2018, 09:44 AM   #1024
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Class Action lawsuit being prepared against the Government of Canada over the use of and continued use of Mefloquine the anti Malaria drug


https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/it-sto...drug-1.4223724
I believe that this, along with many other factors, contributed to the mess that was the Somalia Mission and the murder & torture of Shidane Arone.
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Old 12-19-2018, 09:46 AM   #1025
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Yeah, the more I read this, the more I feel this.


You don't need to answer this UCB, but were you exposed to that stuff?


I know that when I deployed and got the multiple inoculations and pills to take that as a young guy, I didn't ask (stupid)
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Old 12-19-2018, 09:48 AM   #1026
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Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch View Post
Yeah, the more I read this, the more I feel this.


You don't need to answer this UCB, but were you exposed to that stuff?


I know that when I deployed and got the multiple inoculations and pills to take that as a young guy, I didn't ask (stupid)
No Croatia wasn't a tour that got this ####, thankfully. I have numerous buddies that did take it on other tours. Some of their lives are a mess now.
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Old 12-19-2018, 09:56 AM   #1027
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I took it when in Thailand. I could totally see someone unable to differentiate reality from imagination. I woke up to Thai girls going through our bags and holding knives to people. I sat and watched for a few minutes, then woke up my friend and when he said he didn't see anyone, they just vanished. But for those few minutes it was as real as anything else. I would not want people with guns taking that stuff.
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Old 12-19-2018, 10:01 AM   #1028
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I'm going to assume that I didn't take it or if I did I didn't get affected, but it was way back in the late 80's so it could have been different drugs for a different region.


Even after the warnings about what this drug was doing to people they were still continuing to use it.


I'm assuming/hoping that you're ok now though Fuzz
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Old 12-19-2018, 10:26 AM   #1029
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Oh ya, no residual effects, it took a few weeks before I felt normal again, but I only took it for 10 days. Long term? Yeesh. No thanks.
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Old 12-19-2018, 03:40 PM   #1030
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Our defense minister is plowing forward on buying Australia's second hand F-18's even after the Auditor General's report that we don't even have the pilots to fly them, and the purchase of the used jets stupid



https://ipolitics.ca/2018/12/17/feds...ence-minister/


Ken Hanson looks at the Canadian Navy procurment and argues that the Type 26 Frigate that we're looking at is the wrong ship in the face of future war fighting scenarios


https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/cana...not-for-today/
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Old 12-19-2018, 04:17 PM   #1031
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If the Type 26 is the wrong boat, what's the right one?
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Old 12-19-2018, 04:52 PM   #1032
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Right now there are three under consideration


the Type 26


The Ailon lead De Zeven Privincien Class Command and air defense frigate Frigate


The Spanish F-105


With the type 26 the common line that I've heard is jack of all trades master of none. Its got a strong sub surface and surface attack profile but its air defense systems are considered not as good as the other two.


The De Zeven is a strong air defense Frigate, can carry 8 Harpoons and it has a decent sonar sensor suite, a duel torpedo launcher and like the others can deploy a anti-submarine helicopter. Its a bit faster then the type 26, the nice thing about it is its designed to command task forces and has a strong interoperability suite. The biggest bonus is that it has the capability for anti-ballistic missile defense and its current upgrades will allow it to deal with the new super fast anti-ship missiles.




The Spanish F-105 Alvaro De Bazin Class is a new frigate design, its not as fast as the DeZeven at 28 knots instead of 30 but is slightly faster then the type 26. What I love about this boat is it carries the Aegis weapons system which also means that it can combine with other ships of its class as a full air defense systems tracking hundreds of targets. It has a decent anti-submarine sonar and 4 torpedo launchers as well as the usual helicopter.



The 105 and DeZeven just seem to be more complete ships.




Just my two cents.
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Old 12-21-2018, 08:56 AM   #1033
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More on the Admiral Norman trial and the Canadian Forces hiding documents from Norman's defense lawyer


https://nationalpost.com/news/canadi...mirals-lawyers


I would expect that this trial is going to be tossed and heads are going to roll.


Time for a new defense minister and new Chief of defense staff.
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Old 12-21-2018, 10:15 AM   #1034
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Good article on the state of Canada's 70yr old pistols:

Quote:
The Canadian Army brought 20 pistols to an Arkansas shooting competition. Before events had even officially kicked off, 15 of those pistols had jammed so badly during the warmup they couldn’t be used.

“It was so bad, the guys coming off (the range) were handing over their (remaining five) pistols to the next team because they couldn’t trust the others,” said Ken Pole, who wrote about the incident for a feature in Canadian Army Today.

On average, Pole found that the Canadians’ handguns has jammed once every 62 shots. Their British competitors, by contrast, squeezed off 5,620 rounds without a hitch.

This is all pretty standard for the Browning Hi-Power, the 74-year-old pistol still carried as the primary sidearm of the Canadian Armed Forces.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...ement-drags-on

Seriously - it's a pistol - can we get at least one procurement project right?

The US Army Chief of Staff said this best in 2016 when discussion of a mere 2 year project to replace the Beretta M9 surfaced:

Quote:
"We're not figuring out the next lunar landing. This is a pistol. Two years to test? At $17 million?" Milley said to an audience at a Washington, D.C., think tank on March 10. "You give me $17 million on a credit card, and I'll call Cabela's tonight, and I'll outfit every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine with a pistol for $17 million. And I'll get a discount on a bulk buy."
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Old 12-21-2018, 10:39 AM   #1035
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I mean, why do we have to keep re-inventing the wheel here. Its a pistol, its basically a off the shelf purchase. Call up your NATO allies and simply say "Hey dude, you bought these pistols a few years back, hows that working out for you" Then you ask "Did they screw with the budget, come in over cost?" Then add in a "How do your soldiers like them"


Instead we pretend that everything that we buy has to be "Canadianized". Instead we sit things in committees and politize every decision, take years to do anything and the rust out marches on.


I mean come on, sleeping bags, boots, pistols, helmets, those should be easy purchases, but no, every purchases feels like a punishment for Sisyphus.


Just look at how f'd up the fighter jet replacement purchase is because our idiot Prime Minister made it a political instead of military purchase. At the end of the day, we're going to end up buying the F-35, and if we don't, if we buy an inferior jet because of politics then that's shame on the government and they need to be called to task on it.


The Naval Construction purchase, the replenishment ship program, all have become an embarrassing mess.


If we can't freaking buy pistols, then I have no hope that they're every going to get anything right.


People wonder why we can't get pilots, or soldiers or Navy Personal? Its because they don't want to serve in a dangerous job in a rusted out organization.


Good luck recruiting pilots when the Australian F-18's start rolling out and need to have the rust scrapped out of them.
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Old 12-21-2018, 11:09 AM   #1036
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Here comes the next exciting and guaranteed boondoggle.


https://ottawacitizen.com/news/natio...how-to-upgrade


Quote:
The Victoria-class submarines were expected to reach the end of their operational lives starting in 2022, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information law.


That could have been a major problem for the federal government as it is looking at planning a modernization program for the on-board systems on the class, starting in 2023 or 2024.

So our boats are heading to end of life, and the government is looking at modernization, which means, replacement of sensors and combat systems, probably looking at replacing the engines and refreshing the battery systems, looking at how to make the boats quieter, good luck with that.


A couple of years back I wrote a number of posts about the future of the Canadian Forces and predicted a 20 year rust out if steps weren't taken to start modernizing the military.


Now here's what we're looking at



Obsolete fighters that are suppossed to be end of life in 2025, instead we're going to extend that to 2035, and we're going to augment that with the same obsolete fighters that have actually served in a hash environment that has lead to corrosion.


We can't form our own naval task forces because our command and control ships have been retired. The bulk of our navy based around 12 Halifax Frigates who are well passed their half life at over 20 years old. As Navy's around the world are rolling out new classes of ships and frigates, our ships are outclassed, and with the looming gong show of acquiring new ship designs and construction, its likely that the Halifax frigates are going to go well passed their shelf life.


With the land forces we have a mix of Leopard 2A4M and 2A6M, We have a combination of the new Coyote and LAV III, but rust out is starting to hit the LAV 3. We have no anti-air defense equipment at all.


We have less and less people signing up especially in skilled roles like pilots. Our senior non commissioned ranks has dried up and that's the backbone of a effective military.


We don't just need money, we need effective procurement.
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Old 12-21-2018, 03:17 PM   #1037
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The pistol thing is infuriating. Such an easy thing made insanely complicated. Just buy a dozen Glock 17's, a dozen H&K USP12's, see what one the guys like better and order a ####load. Shouldn't take more than an afternoon, but it'll likely take 3 years of 'testing' then we'll just buy some surplus 60 year old MAC 50's from France or something
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Old 12-23-2018, 09:54 AM   #1038
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On the Peacekeeping mission in Mali


https://twitter.com/user/status/1076639142946123776


https://twitter.com/user/status/1076639427672170496


https://twitter.com/user/status/1076640303346401280
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Old 12-23-2018, 01:47 PM   #1039
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https://thestarphoenix.com/news/queb...2-fb25b31fd190
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Old 12-27-2018, 12:05 PM   #1040
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More on Canada's lost capability Air Force wise, at the moment we can't meet the operating requirements under Norad


https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...and-f-35-38157


Quote:
Canada's air force lacks enough jet fighters to meet its North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) or NATO requirements, according to Canadian government auditors. And that raises questions about whether the U.S. Air Force can meet increased demands to prepare for a war with Russia or China.

Quote:
"We found that Canada’s fighter force could not meet the government’s new operational requirement, which is to have enough aircraft ready each day to meet the highest NORAD alert level and Canada’s NATO commitment at the same time," the audit concluded. "The fighter force could not meet the requirement because National Defence was already experiencing a shortage in personnel, and the CF-18 was old and increasingly hard to maintain."



Between April 2016 and March 2018, the RCAF lost forty trained fighter pilots, but only produced thirty replacements. But it's not just a shortage of pilots: the audit found that in fiscal year 2017-2018, 28 percent of pilots flew fewer than the minimum 140 hours required to maintain proficiency, partly because of a shortage of mechanics to service the aircraft.

We're starting to see similar problems with the CF-18's that we had with the SeaKings.



The bigger problem is a poor job of recruiting and training as we're losing skilled pilots and skilled ground crews required to keep these birds in the air.


Quote:
The current solution is a fighter competition between four contenders—the Eurofighter Typhoon, Sweden’s Saab Gripen, Boeing's Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin’s F-35—for an 88-jet, CAD $26 billion (USD $20 billion) order that should see the new aircraft fielded by the mid-2020s. In the meantime, the RCAF plans to fly its CF-18s until 2032, which the audit found unwise: "In our opinion, flying the CF-18 until 2032 without a plan to upgrade combat capability will result in less important roles for the fighter force and will pose a risk to Canada’s ability to contribute to NORAD and NATO operations."

I would expect that the Typhoon will drop out for similar reasons to the Rafale. The Gripen would have to go through significant design changes to meet the interoperability requirements that are being laid out in the proposal.


Quote:
But Canada's woes are also a warning to the U.S. military. In September, the U.S. Air Force called for a 24 percent expansion in the number of operational squadrons, to 386 units. That at a time when the Government Accountability Office—Congress's auditors—warned that the Air Force is short of fighter pilots and that many aircraft types, especially the F-22, can't meet availability goals due to lack of maintenance and spare parts.

The American's are in a similar boat, but that's because they're trying to stock hundreds of squadrons with pilots and personal. We can't even maintain a 65 man fleet.
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