Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
You have an extremely strange obsession with the size of DND in Ottawa. I lived through the last round of supposed cuts. We added a lot more contractors in place of the public servants cut. And DND can't spend the money it has, cutting more of the engineers and project managers and ops advisors (all the military folks who help the engineers understand requirements) will not deliver more. Certainly won't help get those 65 bodies onto a ship.
And Ottawa now has more operational units. The air force setup 7 Wing (Space) and 3 Canadian Space Division in Ottawa. Both the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment and the 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron are in Ottawa. On the CAF side, the Joint Warfare Centre, the Experimentation Centre and the Joint Operations Command are all in Ottawa. When the drones come, they'll fly off the coasts, but be controlled from Ottawa. JTF 2 and SOF Command is in Ottawa. More and more operational work is moving to Ottawa for a whole bunch of reasons, from cost effectiveness to synergy to reducing the time between command authority and action. It's a lot easier to support a SOF operation in Africa when the SOF Command, supporting drone operators, satellite surveillance and comms operators are all in one building, just 15 mins from the Minister's Office and 30 mins from the CDS.
We have too many generals. But at least some of that is the reality of international cooperation. For example, I was on course at the Air Warfare Centre in Trenton two years ago. The Commander there was a Colonel. Her counterparts at all the major NATO and Five Eyes equivalent institutions are 1-2 stars. That position should be a BGen to give that person sufficient authority in multilateral forums. But if we go by some artificial count, I guess we ignore the norms of military diplomacy and look like the scrub country who send a Colonel to a room full of Generals. The CAF is now upgrading that position thankfully.
You would understand more of this, if you actually served, and weren't just running off anecdotes from your son and father.
|
So did you ever have access to General Leslies report from some time ago as I understand that it was not really spread around too much.
BTW its not an artificial count. I get that Canada has to interact with our American allies and to send and have diplomatic/political/military positions.
Are those positions ever really scrutinized? And you and I know its not just the General officer position but the support staff that come with them.Things and offices in Ottawa tend to balloon for the mainly quasi political reasons you have stated. The ice cream cone is VERY top heavy . I would like to see General Leslies recommendations but I doubt if they will see the light of day.
Canada had 64 Generals leading an Army, at its peak in World War two, of 385,000 soldiers in Two Corps. Eight divisions spread out from Italy to the Aleutians. Getting shot at. Ottawa has become too comfortable.
With the developments down South last night Canada may be in a very uncomfortable political position should Mr Trump win again. We are not ready. Trump is a very transactional guy that uses small words to understand complex issues. Our Generals may have a very difficult assignment dealing with our American friends next January. The renewal or review of the FTA is coming up. Do we have enough in the cupboard to please Mr Transactional?
Sadly Truenorth the list of Units you have stated that are now in Ottawa just describes an organization that is in Shock. Like a body that has suffered a serious injury the blood rushes to the core. What you have described are the crown jewels of the CAF especially in sense, experimentation and direct action. Thank God we at least have that but the shaving of the melting Ice Cube that started in 1971 is coming to a wall.
Thank you for your service and I mean that.The political class in this Country do not deserve the commitment ,dedication and professionalism you bring to the table .The Canadian Forces deserve Better from our Leaders.