MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 5 Jun 11

• Libya Mission (1) “When he saw that jet flash by with giant boom a young boy named Eric Kenny knew right then exactly what he wanted to be. There are few flying machines that travel as fast as the CF-18. But somewhere in between his bombing missions over Tripoli and planning meetings with 11 pilots under his command, the adult version of Eric Kenny, now a lieutenant-colonel, admits he sometimes slows things down enough to remember that first time he saw one of these electrifying jets. “It was as a boy in Cold Lake, Alta.,” he says from Trapani air force base in Sicily. It was love at first flight. He wanted to be just like that guy in the cockpit. He wanted to be just like his dad. The pilot in the Canadian Forces jet that flew over him was, indeed, now retired colonel Dixon Kenny, who had his own distinguished air force career including flying the CF-18. Now it is his son’s turn. In fact in addition to overseeing all of the fighter jet missions over Libya, Kenny has also been flying in them, too. “We are working hard at it,” Kenny says in an interview of the important NATO operation and the almost 400 Canadians in the air and on the ground who are doing their collective part. “We are very proud of our effort so far.” ….”
• Libya Mission (2)  More from the CF Info Machine on the mission – what the Herc tankers are up to, a visit to a war cemetery in Sicily and new folks in-old folks out rotation.
• What’s Canada Buying? (1)  “Engineers at Cassidian in Manching, Germany are developing technology protect Canadian naval vessels from laser-based attacks in littoral areas and harbors. The program called Laser Optical Countermeasures and Surveillance Against Threat Environment Scenarios or LOCATES is being run by officials at the Defense Research Development Canada (DRDC) in Valcartier, Quebec. LOCATES is designed to counter the threats made by laser designators and laser-guided weapons. Littoral waters increase the vulnerability of ships as it cuts down on the ability of the ships to detect the attacks in enough time to counter them. The main thrust of the LOCATES program is to create a way to detect and track the threats and then respond with a laser countermeasure system. The first prototype is scheduled to be delivered by 2013. Technology currently being developed by DRDC will be used for LOCATES ….”  More on the LOCATES system here, here and here (via Milnet.ca).
• What’s Canada Buying? (2)  “Nova Scotia’s premier brushed aside suggestions Saturday that leading British defence companies could try to muscle in on lucrative contracts to build Canada’s new fleet of warships. Darrell Dexter said he has no worries that BAE Systems will take away work from Canadian companies after a company official said it and the British government hold designs for several warships and would be willing to share them with Canada in some sort of arrangement. Dexter has been vigorously lobbying the federal government to secure the lion’s share of the $33-billion contract for Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding Inc. The premier said he was pleased to see Defence Minister Peter MacKay immediately rebuff any notion Friday that the contracts would be shared with outside parties, and restate the position that it would be a Canadian bid process. “If anything, it underlines the fact that the Irving Shipyards is the only completely Canadian-owned and operated yard in the bidding process,” Dexter told reporters after addressing the provincial NDP annual general meeting in Halifax. “I believe the Irving bid really is Canada’s bid and this only underlines that.” ….”
• Afghanistan (1)  “Canada is severing ties with a controversial Afghan security firm blacklisted last year by the U.S. military amid allegations of corruption and excessive violence, the Star has learned. Watan Risk Management, which safeguards Canada’s signature Dahla Dam restoration project in Kandahar, is being replaced by an as-yet-unnamed firm, as engineering giant SNC-Lavalin scrambles to finish the job. “Watan will no longer provide security services to this project and we have taken measures to have an alternate security supplier in place,” SNC-Lavalin spokeswoman Leslie Quintan confirmed in an email to the Star. “Because this is an issue of security, we are not at liberty to go into any further detail.” ….”
• Afghanistan (2)  “…. by going to Kandahar with Defense Minister Peter Mackay and Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, Prime Minister Harper not only has symbolically thanked the soldiers, but given indication that he has no intention of letting our military wither on the vine, as has happened when past military missions ended. till, for politicians, words and deeds do not necessarily mesh. It’s inevitable that after Afghanistan the military budget will be trimmed, if not chopped. The $16 billion cost for 65 F-35 strike aircraft is rising every day, and debate continues as to whether this is the best use of of limited defense dollars ….”
• Afghanistan (3)  More from Postmedia News’ Matthew Fisher:  ROTO 1 wasn’t easy (but which ones are, really?).  “He has become known to many Canadians as an outspoken defender of veterans’ rights. But in 2002, Lt.-Col. Pat Stogran was doing very different work. He and 1,000 soldiers from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry landed at Kandahar Airfield to team up with 2,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division in the manhunt for Osama bin Laden and his Arab, Afghan and Pakistani allies. The airfield would later become the biggest base in Afghanistan, with 30,000 foreigners, traffic jams, a Tim Hortons, air-conditioning, movie and dance nights, state-of-the art trauma facilities and the world’s busiest single-runway airport. In the early days, however, half the runway was still badly cratered by huge bombs that had been dropped a few months earlier by B-52 and B-1 bombers. The only fixed-wing military aircraft that could land were bus-like C-130 Hercules transports. Troops entered the country through a terminal that had been badly scarred by bullets during a wild firefight in November 2001, between Taliban and al-Qaida fighters and U.S. Marines attacking by helicopter from ships in the Indian Ocean ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch  At least 16 alleged killed in claimed attacks in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul.