MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 19 Aug 11

• Report leaked to QMI:  CF way too top heavy.  “The Department of Defence and the Canadian Forces are top heavy with too many civilian bosses in Ottawa and need to shift resources to the front lines, according to a secret defence report. Between 2004 and 2010, civilian hires at DND and the CF outpaced hires in the regular forces three to one, and while the number of sailors fell, staff at DND/CF headquarters in Ottawa ballooned by 38%. But the government says those hires were necessary to backfill positions left vacant by Canada’s heavy involvement in Afghanistan, “so that military members could focus their efforts on operational matters,” wrote Jay Paxton, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, in an e-mail Thursday. The transformation report, authored by Gen. Andrew Leslie, was submitted in early July but has yet to be released publicly. QMI Agency obtained a copy from a military source ….”  No word on sharing the report with anyone who wants to read it themselves.
• Report leaked to Globe & Mail:  CF way too top heavy.  “National Defence must take an axe to its bloated headquarters by dismissing or reassigning thousands of workers if the military is to meet its future obligations, concludes a landmark report charged with transforming the Canadian Forces. This scathing assessment by Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, who commanded the Canadian army during the Afghanistan war, arrives at a pivotal moment for the military, as the army returns from its troubled mission in Kandahar, the navy and air force seek new ships and aircraft, and the Conservative government vows to eliminate the federal deficit in a gloomy economy. “If we are serious about the future – and we must be – the impact of reallocating thousands of people and billions of dollars from what they are doing now to what we want them to do …will require some dramatic changes,” Gen. Leslie writes in Report on Transformation 2011. A copy of the report has been obtained by The Globe and Mail ….”  No word on sharing the report with anyone who wants to read it themselves.
• Libya Mission (1)  More on HMCS Vancouver replacing HMCS Charlottetown from the CF Info-Machine.
• Libya Mission (2)  More on Canadian boss reorg in Italy (via CF Info-Machine)
• Way Up North (1)  “Peter Mackay, Canada’s defence minister, who arrived in Resolute Bay in the early hours of Aug. 18, made the most of his day-long visit to observe Operation Nanook, the Canadian Forces’ military exercise, shoring up support from every direction for his department’s increased visibility in Nunavut and the North. Mackay even managed to cram in a dive from an iceberg lodged in the bay outside Resolute with divers who have been learning how to work around icebergs. That, said Mackay, who donned a dry suit and full divers gear, was “disorienting,” but “incredible” as light shone through the iceberg into the water ….”
• Way Up North (2)  CF Info-Machine coverage of Operation Nanook:  “Operation Nanook is well underway with Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircraft and personnel providing valuable airlift during this major national and international operation. A combined Naval Task Group set sail from St. John’s, N.L. on Aug. 5, towards Canada’s Eastern and High Arctic, where other personnel and equipment from the Canadian Army, RCAF, and Canadian Rangers converged for the month-long, annual Arctic sovereignty exercise. In addition to the Canadian Forces, simulated major air disaster and maritime emergency scenarios involve the Canadian Coast Guard, Transportation Safety Board, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Public Safety Canada as well as the Government of Nunavut, the community of Resolute Bay and our private sector partners. Op Nanook, named for the Inuit word for polar bear, is the centerpiece of three annual northern sovereignty operations conducted by the Canadian Forces and its partners who share interest in Canada’s North ….”  More on Op NANOOK at the Canada Command page here.
  
• Way Up North (3)  “A senior Canadian Army officer – Lt.-Gen. Walter Semianiw – is to travel to Moscow and other northern European capitals this fall for discussions about the Arctic. This development mocks the ludicrous media hype suggesting that there is a bitter rivalry involving Canada, Russia, the United States and Denmark (Greenland) over their sometimes competing claims and interests in the Arctic. To be sure, there are differences of opinion about the top of the world. But the reality is there is actually far more co-operation than there is friction. “This is beyond search and rescue,” the chief of Canada Command told me in a recent interview upon his European travel plans. “We are going to be talking about military co-operation in the North.” Officials from Russia and other Arctic Council countries will “table top” an international search-andrescue exercise in the Yukon in October. At this moment, Canadian and Danish warships and U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers are working together in Arctic waters after some of the vessels paid a courtesy call on a Greenlandic port. U.S. Coast Guard divers are on an exercise with Canadians on Cornwallis Island ….”
• Afghanistan (1)  Canada’s air contingent in Afghanistan basically shuts down, after a very busy few years – these stats from the CF on how busy the planes and crews were since December 2008:   More from QMI’s David Akin here, and ipolitics.ca here.
• Afghanistan (2)  How Canadian air force folks are helping create an Afghan air force (via CF Info-Machine).  “Kabul International Airport covers a vast area on the north side of the city. The sprawling complex includes civilian and military air terminals, air cargo centres, and International Security Assistance Force facilities. One military unit located on the airport grounds represents the future of the Afghan Air Force. The Afghan Air Training School (or Pohantoon e Hawayee, which means Big Air School) is where new members of the Afghan Air Force learn the basics of flying and maintaining aircraft and running an air unit. They also participate in literacy training, which is incorporated into nearly every course conducted by the Afghan national security forces. Ten advisors from Canada’s Air Force serve at the training school as part of the Canadian Forces contribution to the NATO training mission in Afghanistan. The Canadian staff are part of 738 Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron (738 AEAS), a NATO unit assigned to advise the the (school’s) Afghan commander and his senior staff ….”
• “The sacrifices made by members of the Canadian military and their families are being honoured with 26 bronze commemorative plaques that will be placed at intervals along the Highway of Heroes, which runs from Trenton, Ont., to Toronto. Announcement of the plaques took place Thursday in Toronto and was observed by at least 100 people, including Canadian soldiers, their families, parliamentarians and corporate sponsors. Each plaque is sponsored by a company, whose logo is visible below the image depicted on the plaque. Money raised through the sponsorship goes toward helping military families send children to summer camps, provide psychological counseling, retrofit homes and vehicles for soldiers returning with injuries or amputations and rehabilitate soldiers through athletics. Creation of the plaque program is a joint effort between the provincial Ministry of Transportation and True Patriot Love, a national foundation created by civilians with the aim of fostering better understanding between Canadians, the military and its endeavours ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War  Well, at least SOME of the U.S. Joint Strike Fighters are able to fly again.  “The F-35 Lightning II test fleet has been cleared for flight, the Pentagon announced Thursday. An Air Force safety investigation board is continuing its investigation of the failure of the AF-4’s Integrated Power Package on Aug. 2, which led to the grounding of the entire fleet of 20 aircraft. The AF-4 is the fourth conventional takeoff and landing variant produced by Lockheed Martin. A government and contractor engineering team determined that flight operations of the test aircraft could continue after reviewing data from ground and flight tests, and revised the test monitoring procedures that govern the IPP. Ground operations of the test fleet resumed Aug. 10 ….”
• What’s Canada Buying?  Here’s a taste of what happened at the Fixed Wing Search and Rescue industry day:  “…. A full complement of the right ADM’s and DG’s from Industry, Public Works and DND turned out, and it was noteworthy that they stayed until the end of the day.  In a procurement with this kind of history, little things can mean a lot, so government representatives handed out all their slide decks and notes in advance …. industry has until September 16 to get back to the government with its feedback, with a major focus on where the fixed-wing purchase can and should sit on a spectrum from full government ownership and ISS all the way through to full ASD, provided it still delivers the same ‘world-class’ capability as today.  This does not appear to be the only interaction the Crown intends, as this briefing is being followed by individual one on one corporate briefings, with the promise of follow-up sessions once inputs have been received and digested ….”
• What’s Canada (Not) Buying?  Canada reportedly pulling out of Global Hawk UAV project.  “…. Canada has become the second country to withdraw from the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 alliance ground surveillance (AGS) program, but the remaining NATO partners are “very close” to signing a contract, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The decision means AGS will lose another source of funding that must be compensated for by the 13 NATO members still committed …. Denmark also decided to withdraw from the partnership acquiring a six-aircraft RQ-4 fleet in June 2010. Meanwhile, Northrop and NATO officials are likely to sign a contract to launch the development phase of the AGS programme within several days. The contract award may still have to be approved by each of the national partners before it becomes official ….”
• “Two Canadian Forces members were listed on the National Sex Offender Registry, as of this spring, the Chief of the Defence Staff, has confirmed. “As of 11 May 2011, two Canadian Forces members were known to be subject to a SOIRA (Sex Offender Information Registration Act) order,” Gen. Walter Natynczyk said in a letter to Defence Minister Peter MacKay that was tabled in Parliament this week. Gen. Natynczyk said he has the power to temporarily exempt CF members from certain sex offender registry obligations, but noted he has never done so. Although a top government official told Huffington Post Canada the two members are still serving, Capt. Scott Costen, a Department of National Defence spokesman cautioned that administrative reviews, which are are launched after court martials or civilian criminal proceedings call into question the suitability of a member’s continued service, may be underway to release individuals from their military positions ….”
• Some Twitter updates from the boss of Canada’s Army.  1) Senior Canadian medic recognized by U.S.  ”BGen Hilary Jaeger was awarded the US Meritorious Service Medal for her outstanding leadership and great contribution to ISAF mission.”  2)  Change of assignment for senior Canadian officer working with U.S. forces.  “Great visit III Corps and Fort Hood. Atkinson‘s were awesome ambassadors for Canada. Welcome Milner‘s” (more on the senior Canadian appointment switch-around from the Fort Hood base newspaper here)
• PM on Syria  Time for the boss to go.  “…. The Assad regime has lost all legitimacy by killing its own people to stay in power. I join with President Obama and other members of the international community in calling on President Assad to vacate his position, relinquish power and step down immediately. The Syrian people have a right to decide for themselves the next steps for Syria’s future ….”  More from Postmedia News here and Agence France-Presse here.
• Lew-Mac on NATO:  “…. (Historian Jack) Granatstein rightly points out that, “In diplomacy as in baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out. Afghanistan was strike one; Libya was strike two. And strike three?” he asks. I suggest strike three already happened in 1999 during NATO’s 50th birthday celebrations when it was frantically searching for a role and an enemy now that the Cold War was over. It found an out of area mission bombing Serbia and Kosovo in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army, at the time a terrorist movement according to the CIA. Seventy-nine days of bombing later, Serbian infrastructure was devastated but her security forces were still defiant and little damaged. Diplomacy took over and NATO capitulated on the two poison pills in the Rambouillet Agreement that “justified” the bombing campaign in the first place, that is to say, NATO freedom of movement throughout Serbia and a referendum on Kosovo independence within three years. As a result of this Russian-led diplomacy Serbian forces pulled out of Kosovo. NATO’s military mission had failed which in my book makes it three strikes in 12 years ….”
• MORE criminals (not just war criminals) on the CBSA “help us find these folks” web site – more from CTV.ca.
• Meanwhile, “Anyone defending foreign criminals remaining here are naively ignoring their potential threat or are driven by unknown motives, Canada’s public safety minister warned Thursday. Vic Toews said some Canadians “condemn our soldiers as war criminals,” but not foreigners evading deportation to face charges of crimes against humanity. On Sun News, he said such stances — including Amnesty International objecting to the government seeking public help to catch 30 suspected war criminals, plus the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) seeking killer Omar Khadr’s return — exhibit a “culture gap. “Don’t you people understand what is going on in the world … there are some bad people out there,” Toews told Ezra Levant, host of The Source ….”
• “Several Canadian cities will be receiving artifacts from Hangar 17 — a makeshift museum inside New York’s John F. Kennedy International airport that houses pieces from the 9/11 wreckage. Thousands of meticulously catalogued steel beams, crushed cars and fire trucks can be found inside the 80,000-square-foot hangar that’s rarely open to the public. Tom Doucette, executive director of The Military Museums in Calgary, said they will be receiving a 15-foot long piece of steel from one of the fallen World Trade Center towers that weighs just under 3,000 pounds ….”
• “Just as they did during active duty, the Olympus and Okanagan continue to slip silently along Canada’s waterways. These days, however, they’re not doing so unnoticed. After all, it’s difficult to miss the 1,250-tonne submarines that are taking a voyage from Halifax to Port Maitland – especially when they’re travelling above the water. Decommissioned by the Canadian Department of National Defense, the former submarines are being transported on floating drydocks towed by barges. At the end of the journey, they’ll meet their fate. The Oberon class submarines are scheduled to be scrapped by Port Colborne-based Marine Recycling Corp. at the company’s Port Maitland shipyard. Now it’s just a matter of getting them there ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 3 Jun 11

• Libya Mission:  HMCS Charlottetown fired at, Libyan forces miss.  “Forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi fired a dozen rockets at a Canadian warship earlier this week in what the government is dismissing as a desperate act by a weakened regime. None of the rockets hit the HMCS Charlottetown, and there were no injuries or damage to the ship in the Monday morning incident, said Jay Paxton, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay. “The ineffective attempt to strike a NATO ship simply highlights the pro-Gadhafi regime’s desperation to have some effect on the systematic reduction of its forces,” said Paxton. The Libyans fired BM-21 rockets, a Russian-made, mobile truck-mounted system. Though some versions have a maximum range of about 20 kilometres, it is not considered a precision weapon, especially at a long range ….”  More from Postmedia News here, QMI/Sun Media here and CBC.ca here.
• Canadian “Presence” Overseas (1):  He says….. “The Canadian military is in talks to establish a permanent presence in up to seven foreign countries, the Minister of Defence confirmed on Thurday, marking the first time since the end of the Cold War that Canada has aimed to expand its military reach around the globe. “As we look out into the future what we obviously try to do is anticipate where and when we will be needed,” Peter MacKay told reporters in Ottawa. The plan, dubbed the Operation Support Hubs Network, involves establishing a permanent presence in up to seven countries including Senegal, South Korea, Kenya, Singapore and Kuwait. In addition, Canadian officials have already signed agreements with Germany and Jamaica ….”  More from QMI/Sun Media here, Postmedia News here and discussion of the issue at Army.ca here.
• Canadian “Presence” Overseas (2):  ….. she says (note the underlined qualifier words in red).  “The Department of National Defence said Thursday that Canada is not working to set up overseas military bases. A media report Thursday said the Canadian Forces was negotiating with seven countries for military access to build bases to house soldiers and equipment overseas and respond quickly to international events …. “Since January 2010, Canada’s men and women in uniform have deployed on international operations in Afghanistan, Haiti, Africa, the Middle-East and . . . a NATO operation over the skies of Libya,” Jay Paxton said. “Prudent planning is necessary to ensure that future expeditionary operations are fully supported, however this government and the Canadian Forces have no intention of creating permanent large bases in overseas locations.” ….”
• Afghanistan (1):  Eyes in the sky of all sizes.  “The unmanned aerial surveillance drones keeping watch over Afghanistan’s treacherous battlefields for the Canadian Forces are kept flying by a small Canadian firm based (in Ottawa). ING Engineering, which keeps the drones in tip-top shape, trains soldiers on how to use them and launches and recovers them for the Forces in Afghanistan, was showcasing the souped-up remote-controlled planes at the two-day military industry trade show CANSEC. To date, ING’s seven-member team in Afghanistan has flown more than 30,000 hours with the Canadian Forces with the gas-powered Scan Eagle, which can fly for nearly 20 hours straight and has a range of 100 km …. In 2009, the federal government awarded Insitu, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing, a $30 million contract to provide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for the Canadian Forces. ING was selected to run the CF’s UAV operations in Afghanistan. A separate smaller contract has also been awarded to a Florida-based company for smaller, hand-thrown drones …. Canada is also using the smaller Maverick drone, which runs on a lithium-polymer battery (similar to a laptop computer) and has a flying time of 30 minutes to one hour and a range of about 10 km. The Maverick only weighs 1 kg and can be rolled up into a tube no larger than a yoga mat. Like the Scan Eagle, it too provides real-time thermal imaging and high-definition video back to base, but is also capable of sending the video directly below to a laptop in battle ….”
• Afghanistan (2):  One legal beagle’s story.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Taliban Info Machine claim Canadian “tank” destroyed near Boldak, all inside killed or wounded (no mainstream media confirmation).
• Congratulations to the latest recipients of valour and service decorations – more from the Governor General’s web site here.
• Court Martial Appeal Court decision (PDF):  military judges having no long-term tenure = lack of real independence.  “A court has struck down portions of the National Defence Act that stipulate how military judges are appointed, arguing the lack of security in their tenure denies them the independence required by the Charter to conduct themselves impartially. The Harper government responded Wednesday by saying it would introduce legislation to rectify the problem. Military judges are appointed by the government for five year, renewable terms and their job includes trying all Criminal Code offences including murder committed abroad, treason, sedition and spying. They can be removed from the bench, however, after their half-decade term has ended. Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s office said the government will bring a bill forward to grant judges longer terms. “It’s the government’s intention to reintroduce military justice legislation which contains provisions to give military judges tenure until retirement,” MacKay spokesman Jay Paxton said. The Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada ruled unanimously on the matter, arguing in a judgment released June 2 that military judges must be “constitutionally independent of the chain of the command” and the government ….”  More from CBC.ca here, Postmedia News here and QMI/Sun Media here.
• Forest fire evacuation of residents from northern Saskatchewan, with some CF help, completed.  “(Thursday), the Canadian Forces completed a 24-hour operation to evacuate the remaining residents of Wollaston Lake and Hatchet Lake in Northern Saskatchewan, after wildfires in the area were threatening their safety. This operation was undertaken at the request of the Government of Saskatchewan …. On June 1, Lieutenant-General Walter Semianiw, Commander of Canada Command, quickly deployed four CC-130 Hercules aircraft and four CH-146 Griffon helicopters in response to the threat to life emergency. These aircraft and their crews assisted in the evacuation of approximately 540 residents out of the danger zone. Helicopters took residents to Points North overnight where Hercules aircraft were standing by this morning to fly them to Saskatoon. Civil authorities have set up facilities to host them in Saskatoon ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 7 Mar 11

• So now, some media are reading “Kabul-centric” when it comes to talking about Canada’s upcoming training mission in Afghanistan to mean “base in Kabul, but not necessarily ALL in Kabul.” “The federal cabinet is being asked to decide quickly on the specifics of the Canadian military training mission in Afghanistan as other countries jockey for prime classroom instruction posts, say NATO and Canadian defence sources.  National Defence will present its recommendations to the Conservative government in the very near future and will ask to deploy “a small number” of troops at regional training centres in addition to stationing soldiers at classrooms in the Afghan capital.  “We’ll need to start laying down our markers by April in order to get the slots we want,” said one defence source.  The locations under consideration include the western city of Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad, near the border with Pakistan …. a certain obfuscation crept into the message in January. Officials and ministers started telegraphing that deployment would be “Kabul-centric” — meaning it’ll be based in the capital but not exclusively in Kabul.  In fact, each of the regional training centres under consideration is ranked safer than Kabul, according to the military’s threat assessment. The Afghan capital has been rocked by a string of attacks this winter, including a suicide bombing last month that killed two people at the entrance to a hotel ….”
• “Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were hospitalized for traumatic brain injury between 2006 and 2009 at almost three times the rate of Americans fighting there in earlier years before the war escalated, according to a National Defence study obtained by The Globe and Mail. The military attributed the “significantly higher” hospitalization rate to “the risky nature of our Kandahar operation” in a report acquired under Access to Information …. The total number of Canadian soldiers diagnosed with TBI was only 83; seventeen of those were classified with a “more serious forms of brain injury.” Still, the study found the hospitalization numbers taken from the trauma registry database at Kandahar were “significantly higher than the expected rate,” amounting to a hospitalization rate of 71 per 10,000 deployed person-years of all Canadians serving in Afghanistan for the three years ending in 2009. That compares with a rate of only 25 per 10,000 for U.S. troops in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2007 – before the increased fighting in recent years and last year’s surge of American troops in heavy combat regions ….” Again, MSM writes a story on a report, without sharing the report.
• Some of the latest (a few weeks after the fact) from the CF’s media machine on what’s up in Afghanistan: “Operation HAMAGHE SHAY (“Same Team”) took place in Panjwa’i District from 16 February to 18 February 2011. Led and largely planned by the officers of Kandak 6, 1st Brigade 205 (Hero) Corps Afghan National Army (Kandak 6/1/205 ANA), its primary objective was to clear the village of Nakhonay and the surrounding countryside of insurgents and their stockpiles of weapons, bomb-making materials and illegal drugs ….”
• “Nearly 100 Canadians are still trapped in strife-torn Libya as fighting intensifies and rebel forces battle their way towards the capital city of Tripoli. Foreign Affairs confirmed Sunday they were in contact with about 90 Canadians and looking for ways to get them home safely. On Saturday, Canada managed to pluck nine Canadians, along with U.S., U.K. And Ukrainian citizens, from Libya using a C130 Hercules military aircraft to take them to nearby Malta. Some 330 Canadians have been evacuated from the North African nation so far ….”
• Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff:  Setting up a no-fly zone over Libya = “major military offensive” “….”I don’t think you can understate the severity of a no fly zone scenario,” (Gen. Walter) Natynczyk told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, describing the process involved as a major military operation.  “Before you can fly and ensure the security of a region you have to dismantle the air defences on the ground. That includes the runways and the aircraft on the ground, and the command and control facilities on the ground. That is a major military operation; it is an offensive operation.” ….”
• Academic:  Setting up a no-fly zone over Libya = “a significant escalation in the West’s involvement in a conflict” “Canada and its allies have an obligation to step in and take military action in conflict-stricken Libya, including the enforcement of a no-fly zone, if rumours of mass killings of civilians prove to be true, a Canadian international affairs expert says.  Roland Paris, an expert in international security at the University of Ottawa, acknowledged that establishing a no-fly zone in Libya — a hot-button issue on political talk shows both in the U.S. and Canada on Sunday — would be a tricky sell in the Arab world, but adds that information trickling out might make a significant military intervention necessary …. Paris said a no fly-zone, which would include disabling runways and destroying Libyan anti-aircraft installations, would be a significant escalation in the West’s involvement …. But if reports of human rights abuses and fighter jets being used to quell the rebellion — all currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court — prove to be true, intervention needs to be strongly considered, Paris said ….”
• Hello, hello, hello, what’s this about Russian news agency Pravda spotting a Canadian accent being spoken by Libyan anti-government forces as proof that NATO’s goin’ in with imperialist guns blazing? “After NATO’s acts of terrorism in recent years, after the blatant disregard for human rights and human life when depleted uranium rendered swathes of Yugoslavia uninhabitable and destroyed the futures of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, would it surprise anyone to learn that Libya is a NATO campaign?  What NATO is capable of, we have already seen in Yugoslavia, what the West is capable of, we saw in Georgia. We have seen the blatant barefaced lies, we have seen indiscriminate acts of murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity, all glossed over by the controlled media. So would it surprise anyone that NATO is indeed operating in Libya? ….  Interesting it was that the eastern and western borders were secured (Tunisia and Egypt) over which equipment and men poured, interesting it is that already two teams of NATO special forces have been captured inside Libya (Dutch Navy Force and British SAS), interesting was SKY News’ interview with a “front-line rebel” speaking in a broad Canadian accent ….”
• About those NATO special forces captured inside Libya…. “A British diplomatic team, including six soldiers believed to be SAS, have been freed two days after being detained in eastern Libya. The men are understood to have left Benghazi bound for Malta on board the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland. It is thought the special forces soldiers were with a diplomat who was making contact with opposition leaders ….”
• More news on the latest in Libya here (Google News), here (EMM News Brief:  Libya),  here (NewsNow), here (BBC) and here (Al Jazeera English).
• The next “You Should Be Outta There” hot spot, according to Canada’s Foreign Affairs Ministry:  Yemen. “Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against all travel to Yemen. The level of risk to foreigners is very high. Canadians in Yemen should review their circumstances to determine if their continued presence is warranted and seriously consider departing Yemen by commercial means while these are still available ….” More from MSM on the advisory here and here, and the latest news from Yemen here (Google News), here (EMM News Explorer) and here (NewsNow).
• ‘The Conservative government is slamming the door shut on a British proposal that the two countries work together in building new warships.  “Canada will not be pursuing collaboration with the United Kingdom on our new surface combatant fleet,” Jay Paxton, a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, said Sunday.  Paxton was reacting to comments made by London’s top diplomat in Ottawa, who told The Canadian Press that Canada and Britain could make better use of scarce public dollars by collaborating on new warships.  British High Commissioner Andrew Pocock said that with the economic crisis exerting pressure on defence spending everywhere, it makes sense for Ottawa and London to be discussing ways to co-operate on replacing aging frigates in their respective navies.  “We live in a much more financially constrained world. Every government faces a challenge in making its defence and other spending go as far as possible,” Pocock said in an interview ….”
• Who’s allowed to bid on the Standard Military Pattern (SMP) Vehicle part of the CF’s Medium Support Vehicle System Project (MSVS)?  Check here.
• “Canadian defence researchers are investigating how brain signals might distinguish hostile intent from everyday emotions such as anger and fear. Though there is still much to learn, the goal is to push biometric science beyond identification techniques to a new frontier where covert security technology would secretly scan peoples’ minds to determine whether they harbour malicious intent. “This ability can be used by members of the military and the security forces to isolate adversaries prior to commission of actions,” according to a research paper posted on the federal government’s Defence Research and Development Canada website ….” Since I can’t find a link through which Postmedia News is sharing the paper, you can Google the title of the paper, “Biometrics of Intent: From Psychophysiology to Behaviour”.  As of this posting, though, the Defence Research and Development Canada publications page doesn’t seem to be working.  Until it gets working, here’s a summary of the paper:  “In the current defence and security environment, covert detection of adversarial intent is becoming increasingly important. However, valid and reliable detection of adversarial intent is contingent on the ability to discriminate this intentional mental state from related stress-induced negative emotional states. A preliminary theoretical framework is proposed that extends current knowledge about the psychophysiology of emotion toward achieving this aim. This framework takes as its starting point two assumptions: First, biomarkers in the autonomic and central nervous systems can be combined to predict specific emotional states. Second, the establishment of a normative psychophysiological and behavioural databank for specific emotional states can be used to measure the extent to which individuals deviate from established norms. Building on our understanding of the psychophysiological underpinnings of emotional states, this framework can be applied to isolate the physiology of intentional states.”
• On a related note, the CF’s also done research on reading hostile intent by reading faces.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 15 Feb 11

• “Col. Hercule Gosselin is so focused on his own duties as commander of the Operational Mentor Liaison Team in Kandahar that he knows little about Canada’s future training mission in northern Afghanistan, which is to replace the current combat mission in the south when it ends this summer. But Gosselin — who works closely with the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police in Kandahar — says, “There are many lessons here that we can share with the instructors going to Kabul.” One of those lessons is not to be too proud, said the former Airborne Regiment paratrooper and Van Doo infantry battalion commander, who is on his second tour in Afghanistan. “Humility is the most important quality we can foster, because this is their country and they know better than we do what is going on,” he said ….”
• How some of Canada’s troops are taking the initiative to learn the language for tours in Afghanistan. Well done to the soldier in question!
• Meanwhile, how is the language barrier being solved during some training scenarios for possible future conflicts?  Laminated cards where you point at pictures of things you mean.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch: Taliban offers to help Afghans “pull an Egypt”, and remembering the anniversary of the USSR leaving..
• A bit more on the Leopard tanks Switzerland is selling to Canada.
• Way Up North (1): Western Canadian reservists train to work, fight in the cold in northwestern Ontario.
• Way Up North (2): Quebec Regular Force troops train to work in the cold in northern Quebec.
• CF lessons learned while helping provide security at the recent Olympics. “The Canadian military is revising the way it handles domestic operations, after realizing there are gaping holes in the existing strategy. Newly released documents show the 2010 Winter Olympics were an organizational nightmare because the military lacked what they call domestic doctrine. Doctrine provides rules and protocol on how to handle different types of operations. “The absence of adequate, or up-to-date, domestic operations doctrine and policies resulted in excessive debate and distracted from the real task of planning and executing Op Podium,” says the after-action report on the military’s contribution to Olympic security. Military planners were stymied by everything from what jobs they were and weren’t prepared to do at the Games, to how to get all the soldiers they needed for the plan …. The report was obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information ….”
• Even MORE on the PM’s Plane’s Paint Job (1):  “A Grade 9 student from Hamilton joined opposition parties in asking the prime minister to abandon any plan to repaint the government’s VIP jet from military grey to civilian white and red. Stephen Harper’s staff have been pushing the new colour scheme for two years, but the air force resisted because the white colour would make the plane more visible in risky zones overseas. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press show one of the strongest opponents of the new paint scheme has been Defence Minister Peter MacKay ….”
• Even MORE on the PM’s Plane’s Paint Job (2): Questions in the House of Commons yesterday from the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc on this thing.
• Even MORE on the PM’s Plane’s Paint Job (3):  Spokespersons finally speak.  “…. Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for the prime minister, said the aircraft is due for a paint job next year and that the government was “looking at some options.” MacKay spokesman Jay Paxton added paint jobs are restricted to the regular maintenance cycle, which is every six years. “Minister MacKay believes that to ensure costs are negligible for Canadian taxpayers, the repainting of military assets should take place in the established maintenance cycle when the operational tempo is such that there (are) no negative ramifications on the Canadian Forces mandate,” he said. “This recommendation is agreed by all and no decision has been taken on repainting the Airbus.” “
• I’ve added a couple of Israeli films to my collection of military and war flicks (new additions in red).

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 22 Jan 11

• Bad Guys in Canada (1): “The lawyer for a Canadian man suspected of supporting a terrorist group says his client will fight extradition to the United States. “I think any Canadian would want to stay in Canada to answer to charges,” Bob Aloneissi said outside court. Sayfildin Tahir Sharif, a 38-year-old Iraqi Canadian, was arrested by the RCMP in Edmonton on Wednesday at the request of the FBI. Sharif, who has children and family in the city but is not married, appeared in court briefly on Thursday accompanied by three sheriffs. The matter was put over to Jan. 27 ….”
• Bad Guys in Canada (2): “A (Pembroke) man charged with attempting to possess explosive substances — in what police allege was his intention to detonate an improvised explosive device at CFB Petawawa — has been refused bail. Matin Abdul Stanikzy, 24, will remain in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, a superior court judge ruled this week. Stanikzy, an Afghan national, faces charges of assault, attempting to possess an explosive substance, counselling to commit theft, uttering a threat to cause death and threatening to burn, destroy or damage personal property. On Nov. 17, city police arrested Stanikzy after investigating an assault allegation. The RCMP’s anti-terrorism squad subsequently laid the other charges. Stanikzy was denied bail on Dec. 3 ….”
• Bad Guys in Canada (for the moment): “The Canadian government has begun the process of formally deporting an Ottawa man declared a threat to Canadian security, but his lawyers don’t expect him to be leaving the country any time soon. Mohamed Harkat’s lawyer, Matthew Webber, said on Friday he had received a notice of intention to seek Justice Minister Vic Toews’s opinion about whether to deport Harkat under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Under Section 115 of the act, the minister can decide not to allow an individual to remain in Canada with refugee status if the minister believes the individual constitutes a danger to the public or to the security of the country. The notice starts a process rolling, but is not a formal deportation order ….” More here.
• Project management in Afghanistan appears to be very different than project management taught in business school.  “In 2002, while I was studying project management at the École des hautes études commerciales in Montreal, I never imagined that I would someday apply the principles I was learning to a counter-insurgency campaign in the heart of one of the most volatile regions of Afghanistan. After only two weeks here, Lieutenant-Colonel Michel-Henri St.-Louis, commander of the 1st Battalion Royal 22e Régiment Battle Group, informed me of the full scope of the mission that would be my main effort for the coming months ….”
• Meanwhile, a Canadian General checks out how projects are working out. “…. The alliance has also helped the Afghan Border Police build a new battalion headquarters on a vast, empty plain a couple of kilometres from the frontier, which follows the Durand Line, a British creation in the 19th century that few Afghans recognize. It was to check on construction at that new base in an area long notorious for smuggling and to see how some Afghan police officers at isolated checkpoints were faring that Brig.-Gen. Andre Corbould, of Edmonton, deputy commander of Regional Command South, had travelled more than an hour down a muddy, outrageously bumpy track in a U.S. army convoy. Leading what the military calls a “battlefield circulation” was Col. Jim Edwards, a career intelligence officer from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, who commands U.S. forces in Spin Boldak. Along the way, the officers met Afghan construction engineers who told them of threats from the Taliban, who accused them of building the border police base for American troops, although none was going to live there. “I told them I am an Afghan and I am building this for Afghanistan and not for Americans,” the chief engineer said. Searching for Afghan flags and only spotting one, Corbould suggested an easy way to help brand the base as Afghan would be to fly a lot more Afghan flags ….”
• A Greek Cypriot newspaper says Canada’s going to use Germany and Cyprus as its Afghanistan staging bases after getting kicked out of the UAE.  More details from government officials via Agence France-Presse, including a spokesperson for the Minister of National Defence quoted saying they’re still “assessing options” on the up-and-coming training mission in Kabul.
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Taliban denies Mullah Omar heart attack, surgery stories (report via Washington Post blog here).
• F-35 Tug of War Update (1):  CDS quoted saying “Multibillion-dollar fighter jet buy ‘best value for Canada’ “.
• F-35 Tug of War Update (2):  “Liberals launch television ads focusing on the issues” Translation:  one of the ads picks on the Tories for sorta committing to buying the F-35 without what most recognize as a clear competition process.
• F-35 Tug of War Update (3):  Canadian aerospace industry association underwhelmed by “Official Opposition’s fundamental lack of understanding of the importance of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program to the Canadian Aerospace industry“.
• “Those who fight for a living in Ultimate Fighting Championship’s octagon are helping raise millions of dollars for those who fight for the Canadian and American militaries. Fight For The Troops 2 takes place Saturday night in front of U.S. military personnel in Fort Hood, Texas. It is the third fundraising event held by the mixed-martial-arts promotion in cooperation with the military. Fight Night 7 was held in December 2006 at the MCAS Miramar in San Diego, while Fight For The Troops in Fayetteville, N.C. raised $4 million in December 2008. This time, the money raised will go to help military personnel and their families in not only the U.S. but Canada as well. “Our soldiers take care of us, and this is our chance to help take care of them,” said UFC director of Canadian operations Tom Wright ….”