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 ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 17 Feb 11

• Remember this from earlier this month? “The Treasury Board has severely restricted Internet use for the next month because of an undisclosed threat, the Toronto Star has learned. But employees of the department, which is central to the government’s spending, say it’s just “weird” and that they can’t do their jobs. “They have shut down the Internet internally at Treasury Board today and they are going to keep it down for a month. The secretary of the Treasury Board said this is due to a ‘threat’ but would not go any further on what the threat is,” a source said …..” Guess which country CBC says may have caused the problem?
• One of the jobs of Canadian helicopters in Afghanistan:  getting beans and bullets (and lots of them) to the troops. “…. In Decenber, the surge into the Horn (of Panjwai) allowed TF Faucon to set a new record for cargo moved in a single month with some 448,000 pounds (203,209 kilograms) of slung loads, shattering the previous record of 292,000 pounds (132449 kg) ….”
• Canada’s in discussions with Latvia about shipping “non-military” goods, equipment through the Baltic port of Riga to Afghanistan.
• “One hundred Canadian soldiers signed a City of Nanaimo flag and returned it to the community that showed its unwavering support for their efforts in war-torn Afghanistan. Goodwill, determination and a bit of luck helped bring the flag home. It was all part of Operation Nanaimo-Gram, an initiative of the Vancouver Island Military Museum, which was launched last February. Museum organizers collected greetings from more than 7,000 Nanaimo residents in 12 separate notebooks to show support for Canadian Forces overseas ….”
• WHAT’S CANADA BUYING?  Wanted: Someone to convert 8 x Leopard 2A4s into Armoured Recovery Vehicles (via Milnet.ca)
• Remember the talks Canada and the U.K. are having about maybe, possibly building new warships together (8th bullet)? Well, some unionized shipbuilders in Canada are worried about the possibility. “Talks between Canada and Britain about a joint program to develop a next-generation global frigate could deep-six Canada’s shipbuilding industry, says a marine workers union official. “If they’re talking to a foreign government about generic frigates, how long before they sell out everything?” Jamie Vaslet, business agent for Local 1 of the Canadian Auto Workers/Marine Workers Federation, said in an interview Tuesday. The local represents 1,200 workers at the Halifax Shipyard, which is doing a $549 million midlife refit of seven Halifax-class navy frigates ….”
• It appears the NDP are also worried about the Candaa-U.K. ship talks. “Mr. Speaker, shipbuilders on the west coast are nervous about talks with Britain to jointly discuss the building of Canadian naval ships. The government promised that these new vessels would be made in Canada, yet workers are worried that they may be sold out in these closed door negotiations. Workers at the shipyards of Victoria, Esquimalt and Nanaimo are looking for answers. Will the Minister of Public Works come clean and recommit to an inclusive, fair and made-in-Canada shipbuilding strategy?” The government’s response? “…. I can tell her that our government is fully committed to the national shipbuilding strategy. It is a historic commitment. Our strategy will create more than 75 million person hours of work for the Canadian shipbuilding industry.  At the end of the day, this is great news for shipbuilders across the country. Our ships for our navy and our coast guard will be built by Canadians.”
• One of the wanna-be vendors unveils a prototype for the proposed Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle. “Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, today unveiled its prototype for Canada’s Tactical Armoured Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) program, as well as the company’s plans to work with its subsidiary, London Machinery, Inc. (LMI), to leverage that company’s new facility in London, Ontario, in pursuit of Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) vehicle programs. LMI, the leading manufacturer of concrete mixer trucks in London, Ontario, provides local advanced manufacturing capabilities and a highly skilled workforce to the Oshkosh Defense and General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada team’s bids for the TAPV and Medium Support Vehicle System (MSVS) programs ….” More on this one here, here and here.  More from the CF on the TAPV project here.
• Exercises Coming Up (1) “The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will conduct exercise flights on Thursday from mid to late morning Eastern Standard Time as they practice intercept and identification procedures. Exercise flights will take place over northeastern Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts, eastern Ontario and southern Quebec. With the exception of those living west of Montreal, Quebec and east of Ottawa, Ontario or east of Providence, Rhode Island and west of Plymouth, Massachusetts, most people will not see or hear the exercises. Those living in the previously-mentioned areas may hear and/or see NORAD-controlled fighter jets in close proximity to a U.S. Air Force C-21, which will be taking on the role of a Track of Interest (TOI) ….”
• Exercises Coming Up (2) “On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, February 22-25, 2011, numerous officials and staffs of The County of Essex, City of Windsor, City of Detroit Homeland Security, Municipalities of LaSalle, Essex, Lakeshore, and Tecumseh, as well as a large number of local community partners such as the Canadian Red Cross, 211 Call Centre, Social Services and Hotel Dieu-Grace Hospital, provincial and federal ministries (CRDC, CBSA, Environment Canada, Transport Canada, RCMP, MTO, OPP), the University of Windsor, St. Clair College and private industry will participate in a major emergency response and management exercise entitled Exercise CENTRAL GATEWAY I ….” More on link, a more detailed news release here, and Windsor Star coverage here and here.
• So, how’s Haiti doing a year after the big earthquake, and a rash of cholera? “…. These days, most people in Port-au-Prince live in donated tents and dread the havoc wrought by the frequent strong winds of the storm season. The tents form in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps ranging in size from 50 families to 50,000 and occupying what used to be the city’s open spaces: golf courses, soccer fields, mountainsides. Although a full year has passed since the earthquake, every street still has collapsed buildings and victims are still being found — on 11 January 2011, a Brazilian patrol dug yet another out of the rubble. And then, on 16 January, former dictator Jean-Paul “Baby Doc” Duvalier returned to Haiti after 25 years of exile, adding fuel to the smoldering election crisis. All in all, not much surprises your average Haitian any more. Canada has 10 staff officers deployed in Haiti under Operation HAMLET to work at the military headquarters of the Mission des Nations unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti (MINUSTAH), under the command of Major-General Luiz Guilherme Paul Cruz of Brazil ….”
• Canada helps train Filipino first responders in how to deal with explosives, chemicals. “The Embassy of Canada is holding a training course for Mindanao’s first responders against explosives and other chemical attacks from February 22-25 in Davao City. The Chemical Explosive System Exploitation First Responders Training Program (CESE) aims to improve skills of first responders that include representatives from the various units in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Philippine Coast Guard. The training program addresses the need to manage improvised explosive (IED) or chemical devices and how to mitigate their possible effects since the lack of skills in appropriately responding to such attacks will pose serious threats to public security and infrastructure safety …. The CESE training course is part of the Government of Canada’s Counter-Terrorism Capacity-Building Program. It is an extension of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) First Responder Training that Canada started in 2005 ….”
• My response to someone saying “let’s throw criminals who don’t shape up any other way into the military”:  why don’t we ever hear people say “let’s throw criminals who don’t shape up any other way into the police“?