MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 19 May 11

• New Federal Cabinet (1a):  Former OPP boss Julian Fantino has been named Associate Minister of National Defence (and he’s already told reporters he’s NOT the “junior defence minister”).
• New Federal Cabinet (1b):  “Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he will remain responsible for Canada’s military procurement, despite the creation of a new associate minister’s position. MacKay said the government will also be moving “full speed ahead” with its planned purchase of F-35 fighter aircraft. Speaking to reporters after being returned as Canada’s defence minister, MacKay said Julian Fantino, the former police chief turned associate minister of defence, will focus on procurement. However, MacKay made it clear he will still get the last word. “We’ll be working very closely together,” MacKay explained. “He’ll be reporting up through me on these procurement files and Julian has tremendous experience within a chain of command, as you know, having worked in law enforcement and he has been associated with the military in many ways throughout his career.” ….”
• New Federal Cabinet (2):  “Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Cabinet overhaul reveals he intends to “move and move quickly” with steep public service cuts and plans to extend his notorious personal control over government affairs into a surprising arena—the oversight of national security and intelligence gathering by a range of military and civilian agencies and departments ….”  More on that here, and from Mark Collins here.
• Libya Mission (1):  “Dollar figures for the war in Libya will be made public soon, a Canadian Forces general said Wednesday, but the final cost may not be known for months to come. One military expert says Canadian spending could easily amount to millions of dollars per day. “I’d be surprised if it was anything less than $100 million (per month),” said retired Col. Michel Drapeau. “It needs to be asked: What are we getting for all that? It’s not an omnipotent pool of resources. Someone’s got to pay for that.” Canada currently has 11 planes, one frigate and approximately 560 military personnel deployed for the Libyan mission, which began at the end of March. Since that time, CF-18 fighter jets have conducted some 300 bombing missions to take out targets that NATO says have helped forces loyal to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi attack civilians ….”
• Libya Mission (2a):  “The Canadian government has ordered 1,300 replacement laser-guided bombs to use in its NATO mission in Libya, defense officials in Ottawa said. Since the United Nations authorized NATO to impose a no-fly zone to curb Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s military from harming civilians at the end of March, Canadian CF-18 fighter jets have flown about 300 sorties, dropping so-called smart bombs on artillery positions, the Ottawa Citizen reported. While the defense department wouldn’t disclose how many bombs have been used in Libya or the order for new bombs, it’s known they are 500-pound Paveway GBU-12 bombs. Various defense groups say each of the bombs cost about $100,000, the report said ….”
• Libya Mission (2b):  “The Canadian military is refusing to say how many bombs its fighter pilots have dropped on Libyan targets. The Canadian Forces lead spokesman Wednesday told reporters the information was protected because of operational security concerns. Brig.-Gen. Richard Blanchette says disclosing the number of bombs dropped might be useful to Libyan intelligence agents, though he couldn’t really say why. “How could they use it?” Blanchette asked. “It’s not necessarily clear right off the bat. But, it could be used in a way that would be going against the effort that we’re having in the theatre of operation.” ….”
• Libya Mission (3):  A more detailed account of the HMCS Charlottetown shooting back.
• Afghanistan:  The REST of the Chinook crash story.  “Canadian and U.S. forces safely recovered a downed Canadian Forces CH-47 Chinook helicopter during a tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel mission in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, May 17. Utilizing a trio CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 461, with assistance from 2nd Marine Logistics Group’s helicopter support team, the Canadian and American team was able to transport the damaged aircraft back to its home at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Taliban denies (one more time) talks going on with U.S., and claims responsibility for loads o’ attacks across Zabul.
• Changes coming to CFB Gagetown.  “Later this summer, Col. Michael Pearson will hand control of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown over to Col. Paul Rutherford. The changeover will mark the conclusion of two busy years at one of the army’s most used facilities. The last 24 months saw scores of extra soldiers flood through the main gates to receive various kinds of training in support of this country’s mission in Afghanistan. While the base is expected to remain active over the coming months, it will be a busy of a different kind. With Canada’s military effort in the central Asian country changing its focus from fighting Taliban to training Afghan soldiers, activity at CFB Gagetown will also go through an adjustment. More attention will now be placed on recruiting and soldier qualifications ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War: U.S. reassessing numbers, timeline. “Officials at the Joint Strike Fighter Joint Program Office are preparing to present a series of briefings to the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) led by Ashton Carter in the coming weeks. The outcome and decisions made by Carter, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, will establish the new procurement baseline for the $380 billion, single-engine, stealthy fighter program. Carter’s issuance of a memorandum following the DAB meeting next week will trigger a series of activities crucial to moving the multinational program forward, Vice Adm. David Venlet, program executive officer for JSF, tells Aviation Week. The DAB will be asked to approve a new path for development, or Milestone B in Pentagon parlance. The development phase had previously been approved for the F-35 but was revoked last year when the program declared a massive breach of its original cost estimate. Though already in production – the Pentagon is under contract for four low-rate-initial-production (LRIP) lots – the reissuing of the development plan is crucial to continuing the program ….”
• “US authorities are conducting an international hunt for potential Al-Qaeda operatives named in files recovered at Osama bin Laden’s compound, a US television network reported. Officials are trying to determine if the names are real or aliases, and whether bin Laden’s plots have moved from planning to implementation stages, ABC News reported, citing anonymous government sources. US officials have contacted Britain and Canada for help identifying operatives named in bin Laden’s computer files and handwritten journal, the network reported ….”
• Canada reportedly to start sharing radar information of planes leaving Canadian airspace.  “The U.S. and Canada are expected to begin coordinating the use of radar to detect low-flying aircraft by November, a top U.S. customs official said Tuesday. Alan Bersin, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said 22 military radar facilities operated by Canada will be combined with the radar the U.S. military and the Federal Aviation Administration use to track low-flying aircraft crossing the border illegally.  “We have a longstanding relationship,” Bersin said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing chaired by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. He noted that the U.S. and Canada have jointly operated the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) for decades. The Canadian information on low-flying aircraft will be received by Customs and Border Protection facility in Riverside, Calif. that monitors unauthorized aircraft crossing both the northern and southern borders ….”  More on that here and here.
• “Pull your toes in the boat, Victoria. For the past couple of weeks local waters have been infested with U.S. Navy attack dolphins. OK, they’re not actually attack dolphins since, as the navy points out on its website, they play only defensive roles. But they are part of a straight-out-of-Hollywood unit of dolphins and sea lions that have been taught to find mines, recover high-tech gizmos, guard against terrorist frogmen and perform a variety of other Jack Bauer jobs. No, I’m not making this up. nd yes, they were deployed off Victoria before being loaded on a big grey U.S. military transport plane Monday and sent winging away, presumably to San Diego, where the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program is based. No one advertised the dolphins’ presence here, but they made enough of a splash (as it were) that their visit was difficult to conceal. The U.S. Navy acknowledged Tuesday that the animals took part in the just-completed Operation Trident Fury (Exercise Facebook page), a joint U.S.-Canadian training exercise held off Victoria and Esquimalt harbours and up the coast ….”

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