The new submarines Canada plans to buy will not arrive with all the necessary equipment to operate under Arctic ice, meaning they will require modifications after delivery, the head of the navy says.
Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee said Canada will need to add under-ice gear to the boats after they arrive, such as upward-facing sonar that can detect and map overhead ice and areas of open water.
SEOUL, South Korea – On a packed bullet train heading towards Seoul, the face of Stephen Fuhr, Canada’s secretary of state for defence procurement, suddenly appeared on monitors in each of the 18 train cars.
In a four-minute news story, Fuhr was shown touring Hanwha’s shipyard in Geoje, along with more than 20 Canadian CEOs along for a trade mission.
Over two days, the delegation visited multiple industrial sites and the Republic of Korea’s (ROK) submarine command base. The event was widely covered by South Korean media, and is an indicator of the importance the Republic has placed on winning the massive contract to build Canada’s next generation of submarines.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is inching closer to a possible decision to end Canada’s F-35 procurement plans and accept an offer from Sweden’s Saab, instead, with news this week revealing that the Swedish manufacturer is now providing Ottawa with detailed, technical information on what a JAS 39 Gripen fighter deal would actually look like in practice.
Among the topics currently being discussed in Ottawa are timelines for technology transfers, the speed at which a Canadian production line could be established, and how Canada could participate in future export sales of the aircraft.
OTTAWA — Canada’s fiscal watchdog projects that the Carney government’s commitment to increase defence spending to at least 5 per cent of the economy will increase the federal deficit by $63 billion a year over the next decade, almost twice what the deficit is currently expected to average over the next few years.
In a new report published Thursday, Jason Jacques, the interim Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), said the fiscal effect of meeting Ottawa’s commitment to hit the new NATO target of 5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) will ramp up gradually over the next decade and will eventually hike the federal debt-to-GDP ratio by 6.3 percentage points in 2035.
There are few policy areas in Canadian politics as tortured as the CF-18 replacement program, now entering its 16th year and undergoing its fifth evaluation — which is likely to once again recommend continuing with the purchase of F-35s.
Despite this, it was reported last week that “all the signs point to” the government pursuing a mixed fighter jet fleet, with half F-35s and half Saab Gripens. Yet the mixed fleet option comes with serious consequences that should give decision makers reason to pause.
Canada’s former top soldier says this country should keep its options open on the question of acquiring nuclear weapons, broaching a subject that has largely been closed to debate for decades.
Retired general Wayne Eyre was speaking Monday at a forum in Ottawa. The event’s topic was national sovereignty and Canadian military capability in an age of geopolitical turmoil and shifting alliances.
All we need is a crazy leader like Kim and we can be NOKO North!
Party Poopers … McGuinty: Ottawa remains opposed to acquiring nuclear weapons
OTTAWA – Defence Minister David McGuinty says Canada remains opposed to acquiring nuclear weapons, despite a suggestion from a former head of the military that Ottawa should not rule it out.
McGuinty says Canada signed international treaties explicitly opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The Canadian Armed Forces will participate in a ceremony in Texas on Monday to celebrate the imminent arrival of their first F-35 — as Ottawa has still yet to announce how many U.S.-made fighter jets it will ultimately buy.
The event comes as the future of the CF-18 replacement program is under review because of the ongoing trade and political disputes between Canada and the United States.
This is a good way to avoid buying new fighters until the fruition of drone tech replaces the need for them.
In Ottawa, various cabinet ministers are praying that TACO – the “Trump always chickens out” theory – is still valid. Or largely so, or at least somewhat so, for they are on the verge of gambling big on the U.S. President’s rage factor.
TACO is high on their minds because Prime Minister Mark Carney and several of his cabinet ministers, including Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, are thought to be embracing the idea of Canada building the Saab Gripen fighter jet and Saab GlobalEye military surveillance plane. They are both Swedish creations whose construction in Canada would create 12,600 jobs, Saab has said.
Both companies competing to build Canada’s new fleet of submarines are engaged in a battle of deal-signing this week, looking to convince the federal government and the public they’re serious about creating jobs in this country.
Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has signed an agreement with Vancouver’s Seaspan Shipyard to establish a maintenance facility for the new submarines should the federal government select its Type-212CD as the replacement for the navy’s aging Victoria-class boats.
The commander of the navy says there’s no reason — in circumstances outside of war — to arm Canada’s fleet of coast guard ships.
And Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee tells CBC News that in the event of a conflict, there are potential ways the civilian vessels can be quickly given the equipment they need to defend themselves.
The question of whether the integration of the coast guard into national defence has painted a target on the civilian agency is something that has preoccupied Parliament for months.
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra created the diplomatic equivalent to a sonic boom recently by stating that if Canada doesn’t go ahead with the purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets, that will mean the United States would have to buy more of the advanced fighter aircraft for its own air force, and fly them more often into Canadian airspace to address threats approaching the U.S.
The petulance displayed by the U.S. ambassador to Canada is exactly what you might expect from Pete Hoekstra if he had just been informed that Canada intends to spend half the money earmarked for new F-35 fighter jets on the rival Swedish Gripen.
Hoekstra apparently skipped the class on diplomacy being about saying the nastiest thing in the nicest way. Instead, he threatened that there would be consequences for the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), if Canada did not buy 88 F-35A fighter jets, as the Trudeau government said it would in December 2022 (after initially cancelling the project in 2015).
Military chiefs have modelled the response to an attack and the Mujahideen-style insurgency tactics they would need to use against American invaders
Canadian military chiefs have wargamed a potential US invasion and concluded that they would be overpowered in only two days.
Canada’s resistance would rely upon insurgency tactics similar to those deployed by the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the fight against the Soviet Union, according to reports.
According to the plans, which officials stressed were precautionary and hypothetical, forces would use asymmetric tactics whereby a weaker army attempts to counter a dominant force. Canada would rely on drone warfare and would also request assistance from European allies, namely the former imperial powers Britain and France.
Mujahideen-style insurgency tactics? I guess they’re factoring in Canada’s replacement population.
Canadian special forces will receive the first of a new fleet of helicopters starting in 2033, followed by other rotary aircraft to be ordered later for army units.
The federal government will start consultations with defence firms in the coming months on the new project, the Department of National Defence confirmed to the Ottawa Citizen.
2033? That’s not a typo.
The Canadian Armed Forces would need to buy 72 Gripen fighter jets and six GlobalEye surveillance aircraft for Swedish manufacturer Saab to deliver on its pledge of creating 12,600 jobs in Canada, CBC News has learned.
Government and industry sources said Saab’s proposals for both aircraft are currently being studied by experts in defence matters and economic benefits in Ottawa.
Top officials from Saab said late last year that they could create about 10,000 jobs in Canada, but the exact size of the aircraft orders required to reach that number had not yet been made public.
Wait a week and Carney will order Fighters from Xi.
