In the late 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, Gordon Todd — who grew up on a dairy farm in southern Quebec — flew practice missions in an RCAF CF-104 Starfighter, to prepare for the day when war might break out between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact along the line that demarked Communist eastern Europe and the NATO nations to the west.
Canadian military drones will face challenges operating in Arctic, RCAF report warns
Canada plans to build a facility for its new drones in the Arctic, but will face more than its share of challenges in operating the aircraft in the far north, air force documents show.
The Liberal government announced on Dec. 19 that Canada would buy 11 of the remotely piloted aircraft from a U.S. company for $2.5 billion.
The new drones will be stationed at 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S., and 19 Wing Comox, B.C.
Did no one think to ask when they were kicking the tires?
In his 1961 farewell address, U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower warned about the potentially detrimental impact of the “military-industrial complex” on public policy.
“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,” he said.
The spectre of shadowy defence contractors plotting with unhinged generals has been the stuff of conspiracies ever since.
The reality is less dramatic but still alarming in its disregard for due process and democratic guardrails.
Take the nearly two-decades-long process to purchase the F-35 fighter jet.
For those who closely follow the news about the Canadian Armed Forces in general and the Royal Canadian Air Force in particular, it will come as no shock to learn that they are currently suffering from a crippling shortage of trained personnel.
At a recent defence & security conference in Ottawa, Minister of National Defence Bill Blair admitted that the inability of recruiting to keep pace with retirements from the CAF have left Canada’s military institution in a “death spiral”. Blair offered no plan to correct the course of action, he simply said that the leadership “needs to do better.”
The life cycle of military planes can be estimated from Day 1. So it’s a head-scratcher that the training aircraft for Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fighter pilots have reached the end of their useful lives, with no replacement on the way. If you’re even remotely familiar with the Canadian Armed Forces, this failure to prepare is exactly what should be expected.
