Completing a six-and-a-half month deployment to the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions, HMCS Regina returns to a welcoming crowd of friends and family at CFB Esquimalt.
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IN THE NEWS
Aug 23
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada will not agree to Russia joining the G7 group until it gets out of Ukraine. President Donald Trump has mooted the idea but Freeland made Canada’s position clear during a visit to Ottawa by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Aug 23
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has announced that the Royal Canadian Air Force fleet of CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue helicopters is to be upgraded and expanded. Leonardo SpA is partnering with IMP Aerospace and CAE.
Aug 23
South Korea has given notice that it intends to quit an intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan, a move rooted in historical animosity and an ongoing trade war. The decision is seen as a setback for the U.S. military presence in South Korea.
Aug 23
Questions are looming large about how U.S. President Donald Trump will behave at this weekend’s G7 Summit on Biarritz, France. Speculation is based on, among other things, his abrupt early departure from last year’s summit in Canada.
Aug 23
Military veterans, especially those who had been deployed overseas, are at greater risk of mental health problems, according to Rand Corp. research. The California-based think-tank warns of long-lasting consequences if the problems are not addressed.
Aug 23
The Rand Corp. has released an analysis of how a new generation of jihadists might emerge from the ongoing political upheavals in the Middle East. The researchers assessed how to counter what is seen as a more technology-wise threat.<
Aug 23
Widespread forest fires in Brazil’s Amazon basin is an international crisis which should be an issue at the G-7 Summit in France, say French President Emmanual Macron and German Chancellor Angela. Brazilian President Jair counters that the other leaders’ stance evokes a “colonial mindset.”
Aug 23
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denies that Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, detained in Vancouver pending an extradition hearing, is a bargaining chip in his country's trade spat with China. President Donald Trump said last December that he would intervene in Meng's case if it helped with trade talks.
Aug 23
Canada has banned official travel by local employees of its Hong Kong consulate after a British consulate staffer was detained by China. The consulate doesn’t link the two developments.
Aug 22
The Department of Defense has terminated a Boeing-led Redesigned Kill Vehicle project after a “strategic pause” to reconsider options. “Technical design problems” are given as the reason for the cancellation of the ground-based exoatmospheric missile system.
Aug 22
An Iranian tanker recently detained in Gibraltar on suspicion of shipping oil to Syria but subsequently released despite U.S. intervention, is being refused entry to a Greek port of call. Deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis says his country is “not willing to facilitate the course of this ship” to Syria.
Aug 22
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo evidently is trying to quell a public fuss over President Donald Trump’s postponement of an official visit to Denmark after its prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, dismissed as “absurd” the President’s mooted purchase of Greenland. Trump responded by calling her “nasty.” In a phone call with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, Pompeo “expressed appreciation for Denmark’s cooperation” as an ally, and the Danish politician characterized their chat as “frank, friendly and constructive.”
Aug 22
India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, is suggesting that his country could re-evaluate its “no first use of nuclear weapons” as Indian and Pakistan square off over the divided Kashmir region which abuts their northern borders. Singh says that while India had “strictly adhered” to the doctrine, “what happens in future depends on the circumstances.”
Aug 22
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries has posted a link to the slide decks and speaking points from its Future Fighter Capability Project online presentation Aug. 15.
Aug 21
Two years ago, the Communist Party of China set 2030 as the deadline for catching up with the U.S. in the artificial intelligence field by 2030. Next year marks a milestone for making significant gains in fundamental research and becoming a favoured destination for new talent, potentially at the expense of the U.S.
Aug 21
Iran says the U.S. should not to try to seize an Iranian tanker which recently was released by the Gibraltar government. Tehran says any further action would have “heavy consequences."
Aug 21
Organizational and management issues in the Department of Defense are hampering internal collaboration efforts, according to a Government Accountability Office study. Congress has called on the Pentagon to address the issue but the GAO says the DoD is 21 months behind its target dates.
Aug 21
Iranian preparations for what it says is an imminent satellite launch are being described by the U.S. as key to Iran’s development of ballistic missile capabilities. Satellite images of the Imam Khomeini Space Center in show increased activity at the site.
Aug 21
As the U.S. and the Taliban seem closer to a peace agreement which would withdraw NATO forces from Afghanistan, a report cautions that warlords are “dangerously poised” for a new civil war. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War says that would be like the one which ensued after the Soviet Union pulled out in 1989.
Aug 21
The Department of Defense plans to stand up the U.S. Space Command Aug. 29. Confirmed by Gen. Joe Dunford, outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it will be the first combatant command to be fully stood up since Africa Command was created in 2009.
Aug 21
Even as the U.S. administration promises to withdraw 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, President Donald Trump says intelligence assets will remain. “We’ll always have someone there,” he said, calling Afghanistan “the Harvard University of terrorism.”
Aug 21
U.S. companies involved in the sale of F-16 Viper fighters to Taiwan are being threatened with sanctions. A Foreign Ministry spokesman says the US$8 billion sale of 66 aircraft should be stopped.
Aug 21
The U.S. administration has formally cleared the potential sale of F-16 Viper fighters to Taiwan. Posted on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency website, the notice of the US$8 billion sale of 66 aircraft by Lockheed Martin requires congressional approval but there has been broad bipartisan support.
Aug 21
Commenting on calls by some Democrats for sanctions against Israel for its continued occupation and development of West Bank territories, President Donald Trump says Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats display “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
Aug 21
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela says he has been talking with the U.S. for months even as Washington ramps up economic sanctions against the embattled Maduro, whose leadership is considered illegitimate by more than 50 countries, including Canada.
ISSUES & IDEAS
Called Voices of Liberation, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has created its first online sound archive to capture the voices of veterans who served during the war – to record their stories and feelings related to the Second World War and its sites of remembrance.
Neither DND nor Veterans Affairs Canada track, with any accuracy, the number of suicide casualties of Canadian military. Part of this inaccuracy stems from the fact that Canadian military reservists are not included in figures released by either department.
A recent Léger Marketing poll surveyed 1,522 eligible Canadian voters. The results suggest that the electorate is looking for a new leader – and the Green party's Elizabeth May is seen as the most knowledgeable, ethical and balanced leader of the bunch.
FEATURED ARTICLES 2019 |
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Some of the recent leadership changes in industry and government include Seaspan, Airbus Helicopters, Lockheed Martin Canada, DND, New Zealand.
BY SUNIL RAM
A look at the long journey of the Type 26 being chosen as Canada's new Surface Combatant design for the Royal Canadian Navy.
FrontLine has gathered the key industry leaders in the defence and national security sectors. These are the project primes and specialized subcontractors that provide Top Quality solutions for these critical sectors.
The Chief of the Defence Staff has officially announced the following changes to senior leadership following the recent decision by LGen Wynnyk to retire from the VCDS position.
BY DOUG SMITH
Search and Rescue (SAR) has always been an emotional topic because it deals with lives hanging in the balance. Is a contracted service in the best interests of the SAR mandate?
BY BRIAN BERUBE
The Government of Canada has been steadily implementing a new approach to the development and procurement of in-service support programs and contracts for military equipment and fleets. What does this mean for industry stakeholders?
BY ZACHARY MYERS
The 2011 update of the CBRN Strategy was changed into more of a domestic emergency plan than a comprehensive strategy, with the pillar of response emphasized over prevention. The 5-year assessment is overdue.
Seniors are being tricked into smuggling drugs and other items for organized crime – and being charged. CBSA has been sounding the alarm on this increasing problem.
BY CHRIS MACLEAN
Global interconnectivity and increasingly complex technologies seem to have seeded the relatively recent concept of Systems Thinking for problem solving. Telfer’s Complex Project Management course graduates learn to embrace complexity for ultimate success.
BY ROSE McINERNEY
A fundraising effort for True Patriot Love exposes a group of intrepid women to the stark beauty and rugged challenges of trekking through Canada's Arctic vistas.
BY BRETT BOUDREAU
The annual CADSI tradeshow CANSEC is set for May 29-30 at the EY Centre in Ottawa. A few months earlier, CADSI attended IDEX, one of the world’s largest military trade shows. But building a presence in the Middle East “is a long-game play,” says CADSI President, Christyn Cianfarani.