MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 30 Aug 11

• CF Reorg/Leslie Report  “Tension between generals and officials in the Harper government has left the future direction of Canada’s military up in the air. Senior officers at National Defence headquarters, according to sources, are opposed to the recommendations of Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, chief of transformation, who is calling for savings of $1-billion annually by reorganizing the Canadian Forces and chopping up to 11,000 personnel, mostly at headquarters. But the report is far from dead, with officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government looking closely at its cost-saving proposals as they seek to trim at least five per cent from every departmental budget to meet deficit reduction targets. Who wins in this tug of war could determine whether Canada’s armed forces emerge from the budget cuts leaner and meaner, or just smaller and weaker ….”  Methinks if the Prime Minister’s office objected to the leak, we’d have heard about it pretty quickly.  I stand to be corrected, but I haven’t seen any such objection, so…..
• Way Up North (1)  Mark Collins brings up an interesting point:  “Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships to Assert Northern Sovereignty With Unarmed Helos”  As long as we politely ask intruders to GTFO, I guess.
• Way Up North (2)  Russian media commentary:  “…. Canada is going to stand up to Russia in the Arctic, along with its NATO allies. But, unlike in many other cases, Canada does not intend to give the Americans the fundamental part. There is still a competition between the nearest neighbors in North America, and they do not want to share hydrocarbons. Canada is trying to become a leader in the Arctic using belligerent rhetoric. The question now is how Russia will respond to the challenge.”
• Libya Mission (1)  The usual suspects are preparing to protest 15 Sept somewhere.
• Libya Mission (2)  Columnist:  Caveat liberator.  “…. The conflict in Libya is not a popular uprising but rather a tribal-based civil war. By freezing his financial assets, enforcing a one-sided arms embargo, providing the rebels with weapons, training and unchallenged air power, NATO ensured that Gadhafi would lose. What remains to be seen is whether or not the rebels will remain cohesive long enough to rebuild a civil society in Libya. I am betting the answer to that is no.”
• First mission for Operation Jaguar in Jamaica (via CEFCOM Info-Machine)
• Snipers meet at CFB Gagetown  “…. The 15th Canadian International Sniper Concentration – set to run Sept. 6 to 16 – will bring together military teams from across Canada, New Zealand, Australia, France, Italy and the United States. There will also be eight police teams participating.  Two of the military teams will be from The Second Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment at CFB Gagetown.  Capt. John Bourgeois, the officer in charge of the Canadian sniper cell, said the annual gathering allows soldiers from this country to develop skills and proficiency.  “As well, we open it up to the international (community) and Canadian law enforcement,” Bourgeois said. “Basically, it’s a big, giant exchange of ideas about new tactics, techniques, procedures and basically bringing everyone up to date on how the business gets done.” ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch  English sites down, some material shifted, and one Twitterer mocking the Taliban’s tweets.
• Afghanistan (1a)  Ammo techs among the many troops busy helping clean up as Canadians pack it in (via CEFCOM Info-Machine, 17 Aug 11)
• Afghanistan (1b) Ammo techs among the many troops busy helping clean up as Canadians pack it in (via Army News Info-Machine, 29 Aug 11)
• Afghanistan (2)  Converting shipping containers into quarters for Afghan troops (via Army News Info-Machine)
• Afghanistan (3)  How good a job did all those UAVs do?  “…. the Canadian Heron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Detachment, known as Task Force Erebus, deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 …. TF Erebus ended its flying operations on July 7, 2011, with the end of the Canadian Forces combat mission in Kandahar Province …. By the end of operations, TF Erebus was credited with 837 flying missions. The task force achieved several milestones during the last rotation of personnel, including a mission of more than 30 hours, the longest flight undertaken by a Canadian Heron crew, and an unprecedented stretch of 116 hours — just shy of five full days — of continuous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage.  Over 30 months of operations, TF Erebus flew a total of 15,000 operational hours with only 198 personnel distributed over five rotations ….”
• What’s Canada (No Longer) Buying?  Remember the call for an “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Helicopter” earlier this month?  Public Works Canada has cancelled the bid (via Army.ca).
• What’s Canada Buying? (1)  “Knappett Projects Inc. of Victoria has been awarded a $103.9-million contract to build the new base for 443 Maritime Helicopter Squadron at Victoria International Airport. “In this current construction market where everything is so depressed, and everyone is fighting for every contract, it’s nice to know that you have something of this size that is going to last a few years,” company founder John Knappett said Monday. “It will keep a lot of our staff busy. It’s great news.” Federal officials have estimated that about 800 workers will be on the site over the 30-month life of the project ….”
• What’s Canada Buying? (x)  Practice dummies for medical trauma training – more from the bid document here (PDF) if you’re interested.
• “Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, today delivered the Oshkosh Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) to Aberdeen Test Center in Maryland where the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) will conduct mobility, survivability and weapons testing. Oshkosh Defense’s response to the TAPV solicitation was submitted to the Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) last week …. The TAPV is intended to replace the Armoured Patrol Vehicle (APV) and the Coyote reconnaissance vehicle, to help ensure the Canadian Army remains capable of effective training, supporting domestic operations and sustaining deployed forces as part of the Canada First Defence Strategy. The Oshkosh TAPV, which is based on the company’s proven Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) platform, leverages a mission-proven chassis and the patented TAK-4® independent suspension system used on more than 20,000 military-class vehicles, which have proven highly-effective in some of the most extreme operating environments, including Afghanistan. In independent testing conducted to date, the Oshkosh TAPV has undergone on- and off-road durability validation, successfully met ballistic and other survivability threat requirements (including the use of steel-pot method for NATO STANAG blast tests), and completed extensive live-fire demonstrations of the fully integrated dual Remote Weapon Station (RWS). The combination of these activities demonstrates the effectiveness, maturity and reliability of the Oshkosh TAPV ….”
• 9/11 Plus Ten:  “Melodie Homer has always taken solace in privately knowing how her husband’s final minutes unfolded while in the cockpit of the doomed United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. Now she’s ready to talk about them. The Hamilton native is the widow of LeRoy Homer Jr., co-pilot of hijacked Flight 93 that slammed into a Pennsylvania field on 9/11, killing all 33 passengers and seven crew. Her story is her search to understand the last seconds of her husband’s life, to cope with his mindless death and to put his murder at the hands of Osama bin Laden’s air pirates in what she believes is the proper context. “Essentially the battle — the fight against terrorism — started in the cockpit. It started with Jason and LeRoy,” Homer told The Canadian Press in an interview ….”

What’s Canada Buying?

• Loads o’ construction work for CFB Esquimalt: “…. The work includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the supply of labour, material, supervision and equipment necessary to construct 443 (Maritime Helicopter) Squadron Facility, Esquimalt, British Columbia …. The estimated cost for this opportunity is in the order of $104,147,531.00 ….”
• More building work, in Halifax: “…. Construct Joint Personnel Support Facility – Windsor Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia …. The estimated cost for this opportunity is in the order of $2,201,555.00 ….”
• Someone to clean up Huntsville training site for Olympic security mission:  “…. The work includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the supply of labour, material, supervision and equipment necessary to remove existing topsoil, supply and place new topsoil and seed at 1446 Aspdin Road in Huntsville, Ontario …. The estimated cost for this opportunity is in the order of $73,600.00 ….”
• LAV and Leopard Vehicle Crew Training Systems:  “…. The Department of National DEFENCE (DND) is considering procuring a Land Vehicle Training System (LV CTS). A Letter of Interest was sent to industry in 2007 to invite responses for the Light Armoured Vehicle Crew Training System project. This Price and Availability (P&A) request is intended to inform industry of changes in the project name, scope and timelines and to solicit updated interest in the project from industry. The LV CTS Project will provide Crew Training Systems for the Light Armoured Vehicle, the Close Combat Vehicle and Leopard 2 fleets. The LV CTS, including all variants, will be standalone simulators and not require the use of any operational vehicle. The purpose of this P&A is to invite vendors of armoured vehicle crew training systems to express their interest by providing the Government of Canada information on company capabilities and similar or existing systems ….”
• Remember this call for a summary of Canadian military research in the Arctic a few weeks back?  Well, let’s try again, shall we?  “…. The objective of this contract is to produce an unclassified,distributable Technical Memorandum (TM) that will serve as an introduction to the history of Defence scientific efforts in the polar regions and provide a perspective on the nature and types of work that have been carried out for members of the Canadian Forces, new Arctic researchers, and interested members of the public ….”  More in Statement of Work attached here (via Milnet.ca).
• Giving military researchers a hand with personnel research services:  “…. DEFENCE Research and Development Canada, Director General Military Personnel Research and Analysis (DRDC DGMPRA) has a mandate to provide expert, timely and objective scientific dvice in support of evidence-based Human Resource and Personnel policy development for the Canadian Forces (CF) and Department of National Defence (DND). DGMPRA research and analysis projects are mainly concerned with the core issues of personnel generation, personnel and family support, and organizational and operational dynamics ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 23 Feb 11

• Things don’t seem to be getting better in Libya, so Canada’s getting ready to fly people out of there. “The federal government is sending flights to Libya to rescue stranded Canadians, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Tuesday. Evacuees will be flown to Europe and, as with flights arranged earlier this month to bring home Canadians in Egypt, Canada is working with “like-minded” countries to share flights. The first plane is expected to arrive in Tripoli, the country’s capital, on Thursday. At a news conference in Ottawa, Cannon said 331 Canadians are registered with the embassy in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, and 91 have told Canadian staff they plan to leave ….” More from Canada’s Foreign Affairs department on those flights here, as well as from Postmedia News, Reuters, Agence France Presse, the Globe & Mail and CTV.ca.
• More news on the latest in Libya here (Google News), here (EMM News Brief:  Libya),  here (NewsNow), here (BBC) and here (Al Jazeera English).
• A 14-year-old gets it on Afghanistan.  “…. Afghan teachers and the girls they’re teaching tell us how grateful they are to have the chance to finally live a freer life, with access to education. These are the voices we must listen to. We obviously couldn’t do the work we do without security. But when NATO eventually leaves, Canadians must not abandon Afghanistan. We should continue to support the aid projects that are changing lives, especially the right to education – because that’s the only way we’ll create and sustain peace.”
• What Canadian troops are up to in Southern Sudan.  “CF observers deployed on Operation SAFARI pack their kit and head out into the bush on five- or six-day patrols. They carry not only food, water and tents but also a generator, because there is no electricity or telephone service in small Sudanese villages. Op SAFARI is Canada’s contribution to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). It is also the military component of the Canadian whole-of-government engagement in southern Sudan that also includes activities by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Canadian International Development Agency and the RCMP. “We spend six days in the bush,” says Major Ed Smith, a UN military observer (UNMO) at Team Site (TS) Rumbek in the Sudan. “Our job is to know what is going on everywhere in this state, and send reports back to the United Nations. There are no lines of communication, no phones, no electricity, no running water, nothing – not even paved roads in this state. The only way the UN has of monitoring situations is through the UNMO, so we go and spend our time in the bush, then write up reports on what we see.” ….”
• Remember this MERX listing from 2008, looking for someone interested in providing consulting services to build a new helicopter hangar on Canada’s west coast to replace a 60-year-old one? The PM has announced the building should be finished “in the winter prior to the arrival of nine new CH-148 Cyclone Helicopters in the spring of 2014.” More in the backgrounder here, and media coverage here, here and here.
• “A Defence Department study says it’s risky for the air force to continue using Griffon helicopters for search and rescue in Central Canada. The review by the chief of air force development cites limitations of the CH-146, pressed into service in 2005 at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont., because the military’s principal search helicopter is often not available. The air force intends to keep using the Griffon at the base until at least 2014, say briefing notes for Defence Minister Peter MacKay. But the 2009 air force study, obtained under the Access to Information Act, said the helicopter’s “capabilities are challenged” when employed as a front-line rescue aircraft and its use constitutes a “risk.” The CH-146, a military version of the Bell 412 civilian chopper, is too small and lacks the range to reach wilderness sites in Northern Ontario and Quebec without refuelling. Having to stop for gas “increases the response time to an incident site, and the amount of time the helicopter can remain on the scene to perform rescue tasks,” said the 20-page censored report. It noted one incident where search-and-rescue technicians were lowered to a crash site “and the helicopter departed the scene to refuel before extracting the casualties.” ….” Re:  the bit in red, any chance of anybody reading the paper or the internet being able to read the report for themselves?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Anyone?
• F-35 Tug o’ War (1) “…. Stephen Harper threw down the gauntlet Tuesday to his critics who question his government’s military spending, including $16 billion for 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets. That purchase is expected to be a major election issue for the Liberals and NDP in the next campaign, whenever it’s called. While announcing a new $155 million helicopter base in B.C., Harper warned against “willful naivete” in national security, and said Canada has to be ready to defend itself from any and all threats. “If you don’t do that, you soon don’t have a country and you don’t have any of the other good things you once thought were more important,” he said. “Our country has certainly never gone and will never go looking for trouble. However, many times during the past 200 years, trouble has come looking for us. While Canada does not aspire to be an armed camp, neither is their any place in national defence for willful naivety.” ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2) “The Department of National Defence says it is hiding a key F-35 document from the public because that type of document is classified. Yet its own website hosts many of these same types of papers for public downloading, almost all of which are marked as “unclassified.” This has prompted allegations the Harper government and military have “twisted” Canada’s procurement process so it can buy the billion-dollar planes. The document, called a “Statement of Operational Requirements,” is a well-established centerpiece of the military’s procurement process. Save for certain classified bits of information, it is typically released publicly so Canadians can examine what their armed forces need before their tax dollars are spent. However in an unusual step, the Harper government did not release an operational requirements statement before announcing its plan to replace Canada’s fleet of ageing CF-18 fighter jets with the F-35. In fact, the military has admitted it chose the F-35 before it even drew up the Statement of Operational Requirements. Despite this, the department has continued to hide the document from public view, saying in an email that “an Air Force project’s Statement of Operational Requirements is an internal Department of National Defence document.” “SORs are classified documents” that are “not disclosed publicly,” added spokesperson Evan Koronewski ….”
• If this has been reported properly, apparently, the RCMP says a former military police officer (who’s served overseas in Bosnia and Cyprus) hasn’t been a Halifax cop long enough to qualify for a U.N. policing job in Haiti. “RCMP brass in Ottawa won’t allow a former Canadian military member and current Halifax cop who’s done two previous tours in wartorn countries to be a peacekeeper in Haiti. “It’s absolutely asinine,” said Dave Moore, president of the Municipal Association of Police Personnel, the union that represents the unnamed Halifax officer. “To me it’s making a statement that (he’s) substandard and that’s not true at all in our eyes.” The officer, who’s worked under the auspices of the UN in Bosnia and Cyprus, has been on the Halifax Regional Police force for more than two years. Before that, he spent 12 years in the Canadian military, seven of those as a military cop. “We’ve worked many, many years with the military police. They’re as well qualified as the federal force,” said Moore ….”
• “Over his 22 years in the Canadian Forces, Chris Hennebery saw not a single gunshot fired in anger. It’s only now, as a married father of two little girls and a successful software executive, that he’s going to find himself in a combat zone. Hennebery leaves at the end of next month to work as an artist in Afghanistan, capturing in his sketchbook and watercolours images of Canadian soldiers at war. After three weeks in NATO combat outposts and on patrols in the heartland of the Taliban insurgency, Hennebery will return to Canada to turn his preliminary works into a series of 10 large acrylic paintings. Accompanying the former professional artist will be photographer Shaun O’Mara, a former British commando and Canadian soldier whom Hennebery served with in the Royal Westminster Regiment ….”
• Sigh…. “One of the doctors charged last week with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in downtown Toronto hotel is a long-serving member of the Canadian military, CBC News has learned. Dr. Amitabh Chauhan, 32, of Ancaster, Ont., has been closely associated with the Canadian Forces since 1997, when he became a cadet. The following year he enrolled in the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., as an officer cadet. Chauhan, received his undergraduate degree from RMC in 2002 with an honours BA in politics and economics. “Following his education with RMC, he began his training to become a pilot in January 2004. He ceased training in July 2005 and undertook a variety of duties,” the Department of National Defence said in a written statement to CBC News. He did his pilot training at CFB Moose Jaw. On Monday, Toronto police said that when he was arrested Chauhan had a Saskatchewan driver’s licence. Chauhan left the military in 2007 but continued his association as a member of the naval reserve, which he joined three years ago. “Mr. Chauhan is a naval reservist who works part-time at the naval reserve division HMCS Star in Hamilton [Ont.] and holds the rank of acting sub-lieutenant,” according to the military. He is currently a post-graduate student in the plastic surgery department at McMaster University in Hamilton ….” I can’t wait for the CBC to start writing about the university history of future criminals.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch: Taliban claim responsibility for killing translator for Americans in Mullah Omar’s (alleged) former compound in Kandahar City.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 3 Feb 11

• VERY interesting questions from a wounded warrior…. “ …. What happened to the CDS’s promise (made to me in person) that no disabled WIA would be released before they are ready to transition?  …. those of us in uniform all know that there are personnel in various support trades who have never deployed because they are too obese to meet the basic fitness standard (Battle Fitness Test).  These folks seem to float from one T-Cat to another, with very few (if any) ever being released for failure to pass even the non-deployment basic fitness test (EXPRES test).  What is up with that?  …. Why does the CF even stock the extreme sizes of combat uniform that are as wide in the arse/gut as they are tall?  Grossly obese persons have no place in uniform, projecting a negative public image of the CF.  Orange jumpsuits would be more appropriate for the morbidly obese and would serve as an incentive to lose weight.  Rigid and timely application of the universality of service requirements and medical release procedures should also be applied to those obese members who cannot attain the deployment fitness standard.  At the end of the day, I would like to see disabled combat vets such as myself offered the opportunity to fill domestic support jobs so that those who are fit to fight are freed up for deployment.   If nothing else, I want assurance that our disabled WIA are offered the same degree of “rule-bending consideration” that the chain of command and the medical system quite evidently apply to the 1000 or so obese CF members who can’t even pass the basic XPRES test.”
• “Memorial visits to Kandahar by the families of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan will continue, but they’ll be financed by non-public funds, the Defence Department said Wednesday. A department spokesman said the visits, which had been briefly in limbo, won’t be billed to the taxpayer until new spending rules are in place. In the meantime, costs can be covered from the military families fund, which is financed by private donations and various fund-raisers, Andrew McKelvey, a department communications adviser, said in an email. “The military families fund is an agile and responsive fund with a broad mandate to assist families, especially where there is no authorized public program, benefit or service to do this,” he said. “Given the intent to seek public approval for (next-of-kin) travel, it is anticipated that the support required from the military families fund will be short term.” ….”
• Blog Watch: Former OMLT-eer says NYT reporter needs to do more homework covering Afghanistan.
• One set of hearings looking into Canadian treatment of Afghan detainees has wrapped up.  “The Military Police Complaints Commission has adjourned to sort through the sometimes explosive testimony of some 35 witnesses, as well as thousands of pages of documents reluctantly turned over by the federal government, after an oftentimes acrimonious hearing into the Afghan detainee scandal drew to a close Wednesday. The year-long hearing concluded with final arguments from civil rights lawyers who said eight military police officers were negligent in their failure to investigate potentially criminal decisions taken by Canadian Forces commanders to transfer detainees to Afghan custody, where they faced torture. Lawyers for Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which launched the complaint, argued there was an abundance of evidence to suggest Afghan secret police were abusive and, had military police been asking the right questions of task force commanders, they would have known something wasn’t right ….” More here and here.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Attacks alleged in Kandahar, and Taliban showing its green side.
• “Egyptian officials have promised the federal government they will do “everything” they can to help Canadians still stranded in the North African nation, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday.  A plane carrying 29 Canadians and dozens of Australians, Britons and Americans left Alexandria for Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday as violent protests continued in the streets of Egypt’s major cities. A flight leaving Cairo, which is expected to carry about 90 Canadians, was scheduled to land in Paris Wednesday evening.  Cannon told reporters that he spoke with Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit Wednesday about the ongoing mass protests aimed at forcing President Hosni Mubarak from office after three decades in power …. “
• Canada’s MPs spent much of last night in the House of Commons in an emergency debate on what’s up in Egypt these days – transcript via Hansard here.
• “Would-be Jihadist suicide bomber or playful loving family man? Those were the two starkly different ways suspected terrorist Sayfilden Tahir Sharif was portrayed Wednesday at his bail hearing in Edmonton. A photograph snapped by Cara Rain, his common-law wife, was entered as an exhibit showing Sharif clowning around with her children in the apartment they shared before his arrest last month by RCMP at the request of the FBI.  Wearing a black hijab, Rain told court there is no way the man she loves is guilty of U.S. allegations that he supported a multinational terrorist network that took part in a suicide bombing which killed five American soldiers in Iraq …. Sharif’s lawyer, Bob Aloneissi, is seeking bail conditions akin to house arrest as his client prepares to fight extradition to the U.S.  The federal Crown wants him held in custody pending the outcome of a long hearing process that may not begin until later this year. Crown prosecutor Jim Shaw entered a letter from the U.S. Justice Department dated Feb. 1 that warns Sharif poses an extreme danger to the community and a significant flight risk ….”
• Border Worries (1): This from a U.S. government watchdog office – “The challenges of securing the U.S.-Canadian border involve the coordination of multiple partners. The results of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to integrate border security among its components and across federal, state, local, tribal, and Canadian partners are unclear. GAO was asked to address the extent to which DHS has (1) improved coordination with state, local, tribal, and Canadian partners; (2) progressed in addressing past federal coordination challenges; and (3) progressed in securing the northern border and used coordination efforts to address existing vulnerabilities ….”
• Border Worries (2) “Canada and the United States are scrambling to quell fears that Canadians would soon need visas to cross the border, following a hard-hitting report to Congress that questioned security along the 49th parallel. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday he had been assured by the U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, there is no plan to require visas. “Ambassador Jacobson phoned me up to let me know that that certainly is not the intention of the Obama administration,” Cannon told a news conference. Indeed, Jacobson took to Twitter shortly after the report’s release Tuesday to declare that co-operation between the U.S. and Canada on security and border management had been “exceptional for years.” ….”
• Border Worries (3) “Canada and the United States are poised to take a major step toward common border security controls that could lead to joint government facilities, sophisticated tracking of travellers, better cyber-security protection and improved oversight of overseas cargo shipped to both countries. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to give the green light Friday to a comprehensive shared review of border security aimed at tightening protection from terrorists and easing the flow of cross-border traffic ….” More on tomorrow’s coming talks here.  Let’s hope the issue of where many of those illegal guns that end up being seized here are coming from as well.
• F-35 Tug of War (1) “Firms report big risks to get onboard F-35 program: Firms say major ministerial public relations campaign as much about investor as public confidence.”
• F-35 Tug of War (2) Canada’s defence minister accuses former CF member/Liberal MP Marc Garneau of not supporting the troops on this one.  “…. Mr. Speaker, I think the person who is worried is the member opposite because the more he talks against the F-35 the more he shows his true colours. He is against the aerospace industry in his own region. He is working against those men and women he used to serve with ….”
• What’s Canada Buying? More on running CFS Alert infrastructure, and pest control in/around Gagetown
• Three Canadian Navy ships (and an Aurora patrol aircraft) are headed west to help on an exercise near Hawaii.