BEST FIGHTER FOR CANADA

HMCS Protecteur being towed by USNS Sioux The Canadian Navy's two Protecteur- class replenishment ships are done.  After 45 years of faithful service, HMCS Protecteur suffered an engine room fire off the coast of Hawaii and needed to be towed back to port.  Her sister ship, the HMCS Preserver, is not doing much better.  In 2011, it smashed into a Halifax dock causing over a half-million dollars in damages .  Both ships have been plagued with electrical problems . These ships are no longer just "showing their age".  One of these ships is now officially dead with the other on life support.  Recently, it was announced that both ships have sailed their last journeys , along with the similar vintaged HMCS Iroquois and HMCS Algonquin destroyers.  This is just as well, as the two Protecteur- class ships were beginning to wear out there welcome in many ports thanks to their monohull design. The Queenston- class These two ships have served Ca...

This time last year, the Iraq war was winding down, troops were leaving Afghanistan, and the world seemed to well on its way to becoming a more peaceful place.  The only concerns people had about Russia were its extreme right-wing tendencies and the Sochi Winter Olympics .  Military spending was focused on the " Asia-Pacific Shift " to match China's military buildup . What a difference a year makes. Russia's invasion of Ukraine as given NATO forces a wake-up call .  The Middle-East is once again (still?) a quagmire thanks to ISIS/ISIL .  No doubt about it, things have gotten bad.  They might get worse before they get better . Unfortunately, this has come at a rather inconvenient time.  NATO nations' defense spending has consistently decreased over the last few years.  Canada's military spending cuts rank amongst the highest.  Defense spending is often easy picking for politicians wishing to curb spending.  With the Cold W...

Canada's military procurement.  A few hits, but mostly misses.   Canada's military procurement strategy lately seems to beg the question:  "Does Canada have a military procurement strategy?" Big ticket items, like fighter jets, helicopters, and even a new headquarters seem almost unobtainable thanks to controversy, cost overruns and delays.  In the meantime, the Canadian Armed Forces are left wondering when the new equipment will arrive, if ever. How bad is it?  Some have compared it to a Monty Python movie. The Sea King replacement:  Going on 30 years of searching... The most notorious example, the Sea King replacement, has now been in the works since 1983.  It's one time designated replacement, the EH101, was canned by the Chretien government back in 1993, and the program was put on the back burner until the mid-1990s.  Finally, in 2004, a militarized version of the Sikorsky S-92 Cougar, dubbed the CH-148 Cyclone, was selected....