#CANinIRQ
- A touch more detail on what Canada’s ground troops are up to, via the LA Times (with a hat tip to 3D’s Mark Collins for sharing) “Though a coalition of Western countries is training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to more effectively fight Islamic State militants, Kurdish commanders and officers say the effort is moving slowly and not keeping up with the military strength and speed of their enemy …. Much of the peshmerga training is still in the early assessment phase as coalition partners decide who will oversee which aspects, even as Kurdish forces and the Iraqi army engage in daily battle with Islamic State fighters, who are armed with advanced weaponry. The Americans are focusing on command and control issues with the peshmerga leadership. The French are based at a center near Irbil where they are training peshmerga regular and special forces on advanced weapons such as the heavy machine guns. And though Canada is due to provide and train the Kurds to use robots to detect homemade bombs, there hasn’t been any training on how to disarm explosives, the most dangerous threat the peshmerga face and which has accounted for more than 60% of those killed, said Lt. Gen. Jabbar Yawar Manda, secretary-general of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs ….”
- Some Twitter Thanks from America’s Secretary of State: “Appreciate our friend #Canada’s commitment to coalition to degrade/defeat #ISIL.”
What’s Canada Buying?
- Wanted: someone to deliver “customized training of students in applied mathematics, physics and chemistry on an as and when requested basis for the Department of National Defence at Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering (CFSME), Oromocto, New Brunswick ….”
- “The Department of National Defence (DND) has a requirement for the provision of four (4) EOD Disruptors plus ancillaries ….”
- Wanted: tailoring services for Esquimalt and St. Jean
- Wanted (again): “Services contract for accommodations and providing meals, in Ottawa, for the students and employees of the Canadian Forces Language School, on behalf of the Department of National Defence (DND), 5 Area Support Group (5 ASG), Land Force Quebec Area (LFQA), represented by the commanding officer (CO) of Mat Sp located at St-Jean Garrison ….”
Way Up North
- “Canada lacks an overall vision for dealing with an expected growth in marine traffic in the Arctic, with outdated maps and surveys, inadequate navigational aids and icebreaking services that are stretched to the limit, the federal environment commissioner warned Tuesday. Julie Gelfand’s audit of Transport Canada, Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans, which oversees the coast guard, paints a startling portrait of just how many gaps there are in the federal government’s knowledge and understanding of a region it has long claimed is a political and economic priority ….” – more
- “An improved satellite imager for year-round Arctic monitoring”
- “Russia’s Defense Ministry is ready to adopt civil science developments, in particular anti-stress pills, for military medical support in the Arctic, the country’s chief military doctor Alexander Fisun said ….”
- “Two separate motor rifle brigades will be brought into service of Russian army grouping in the Arctic region in 2015-2016, Chief Commander of Russian Ground Troops Colonel-General Oleg Salyukov told reporters …. “A separate motor rifle brigade (in the Arctic region) is about to be formed in the Murmansk region. A second motor rifle brigade will be set up in the course of 2016 in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area,” he said. Salyukov recalled that a multi-service army grouping was being created to protect Russian national interests in the Arctic region ….” – more
- “A Russian Perspective on China’s Arctic Role — Russia’s need for new partners is opening the door for China in the Arctic ….”
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