22 July - RCAF Traffic Technicians load COVID-19 related humanitarian and medical supplies on a CC-177 Globemaster to be flown to Hounduras as part of Operation GLOBE 20-02.
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IN THE NEWS
Oct 30
If Canada opts to buy Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets as a replacement for its legacy CF-188 Hornets, final assembly of the new aircraft would be done in the U.S. Jim Barnes, Boeing Defense, Space, and Security director of business development in Canada, says “the benefits of standing up these types of operations in Canada were not worth the investment” in a procurement of 88 aircraft.
Oct 30
The sale of as many as 50 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters to the United Arab Emirates, which would give it parity with Israel, faces pushback in Congress as some Democrats urge a more deliberate approach to the sale. “This technology would significantly change the military balance in the Gulf.” says Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The export of this aircraft requires very careful consideration and Congress must analyze all the ramifications.”
Oct 30
A push by the U.S. administration to have India commit to buying General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper armed drones apparently has encountered resistance in Delhi. The State Department has already cleared the procurement but U.S. officials are saying that a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper wasn’t enough, robbing the administration of a foreign policy success in the dying days of President Donald Trump’s re-election bid.
Oct 30
The U.S. is not ruling out further sanctions against Turkey if it makes its Russian anti-aircraft missile system fully operational. “Sanctions is very much something that is on the table,” says Assistant Secretary of State R. Clarke Cooper. “Operationalizing such an asset . . . incurs further risk of sanctions and further risks of restrictions.”
Oct 30
Ostensibly unchanged for decades, tank warfare continues to rely on human factors even as militaries worldwide embraces robotics, artificial intelligence and newer communications technologies. “Everything is done manually still,” says a U.S. Army master gunner, pointing out that tankers continued to rely on traditional time-consuming techniques to “detect, identify and engage targets.”
Oct 30
Rather deploying to Antarctica to support an annual resupply mission to the U.S. research stations, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Polar Star will be in the Arctic this winter in what the USCG says is a mission to protect maritime sovereignty and security. “The Arctic is . . . a region of growing national importance,” says VAdm Linda Fagan, commander of USCG Pacific.
Oct 29
A senior U.S. State Department official is downplaying speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic could prompt allies to restructure their procurement of U.S. weaponry. While there is a current “steady state,” he says some customers “may have looked to reframe or push right to a later date particular procurements, we've not seen dramatic changes.”
Oct 28
Raytheon Technologies is cutting 15,000 staff and 4,000 contractor positions, largely at its Pratt & Whitney and Collins Aerospace divisions. CEO Greg Hayes says “difficult but necessary actions” were needed and that he expects the rebound to be “long and slow.”
Oct 28
A member of South Korea’s governing party says it would be cheaper for his country to buy new transport helicopters than to upgrade its current fleet of decades-old Boeing Chinooks. Min Hong-chul, who sits on the National Assembly’s defence committee, aired his concerns in a parliamentary audit of the Defence Acquisition Program Administration.
Oct 28
The head of national security studies at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, N.Y., says the Department of Defense cannot “efficiency” its way out of hard choices imposed by a “flatlined” budget. Steve Grundman advocates better planning, more competition for contracts, and resisting “the seductive call of scale to reduce cost.”
Oct 28
New satellite imagery indicates that Iran has begun construction at its Natanz nuclear facility, effectively confirming an International Atomic Energy Agency disclosure that the country is accelerating its uranium enrichment program.
Oct 27
As much as $250 million in maintenance, cleaning and other contracts at military bases can’t be properly scrutinized by the public to determine if the work is actually being done, warns the Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE). Requests for verification of work can get shuffled from PSPC to DND then to the contractor where the request is ultimately blocked. UNDE recommends change.
Oct 27
A U.S. academic consortium led by Texas A&M University has received a Department of Defense contract worth $20 million annually for five years to further research into hypersonic technologies. The development mirrors one already in place in China.
Oct 27
Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet says partnerships with other companies could be the key to U.S. and allied militaries as they move to 5G networking while also enabling L-M to diversify its product lines. The U.S. Air Force alone plans to spend at least $9 billion over the next five years connecting its weapons systems.
Oct 27
The British lobby, ADS Group, which represents the aerospace industries, says the future of Britain’s £34-billion sector, which employs 110,000, is at risk if there’s no agreement with the European Union about mutual recognition of parts. It warns that customers could “go elsewhere” or British-based companies might opt to relocate.
Oct 27
Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country and NATO should inspect each other’s military bases in a bid to move along a moratorium on the deployment of new missiles in Europe. The U.S. and Russia, each accusing the other of violations, withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year. “Vigorous efforts are needed to ease the shortage of trust, to strengthen regional and global stability, and to reduce the risks stemming from misunderstandings and disagreements in the field of missile weapons,” Putin says.
Oct 27
A delay in critical simulation tests has forced the U.S. Department of Defense to delay moving Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production to full rate. It was expected to ramp up in December, having already been delayed by a year, but now is not expected until sometime in 2021.
Oct 27
Embraer’s Lineage 1000 has been chosen by Pakistan as a replacement for its Boeing P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft. It is unclear whether the new platform is being procured directly from the Brazilian manufacturer or another party.
Oct 27
The Chinese foreign ministry is planning to impose sanctions on Boeing’s defence division?, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and “revelevant American individuals” for supplying weapons to Taiwan. However, a ministry spokesman gave no further details.
Oct 27
A pledge by French President Emmanuel Macron to defend his country’s state secularism has prompted his Turkish counterpart, to call for a boycott of French products over what he considers “oppression against Muslims.” The interaction between the two NATO members follows the murder of a teacher in retaliation for his displaying contentious cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Oct 26
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that a military alliance with China is “certainly imaginable, in theory." Some Chinese observers have called an alliance unlikely but say that even broaching the idea is a sign of good will.
Oct 26
Ottawa Police Service is seeking the public’s help in identifying a man who carved a swastika on the gravestone helmet at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 22 October. The damage, described by Veterans Affairs Minister Laurence MacAulay as “disgusting,” has been repaired.
Oct 26
The U.S Coast Guard is deploying enhanced response cutters in the Western Pacific. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien says China’s “illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and harassment of vessels operating in the exclusive economic zones of other countries in the Indo-Pacific threatens our sovereignty, as well as the sovereignty of our Pacific neighbors and endangers regional stability.”
Oct 26
Bombardier Recreational Products has suspended the delivery of its Rotax engines to “countries with unclear usage.” This is in response to reports that the engines, manufactured in Austria and certified for civilian use, are powering Turkish combat drones deployed by Azeri forces fighting Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Oct 26
Roman Waschuk, Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, says Canada’s presence in Eastern Europe shows that while we have military “bite” there, it could benefit from added “bark” in regional discussions.
ISSUES & IDEAS
Everywhere we look within DND, we find delay. This ranges from replacing vital equipment to appointing a new leader – what does that say about how the government prioritizes its Armed Forces?
Israel may ask Canada to extend its participation in the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Peninsula beyond the current 2022 plan if the Pentagon eliminates or reduces American participation.
This year’s biennial two-week Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) has finished off with a bang. In fact, lots of bangs that resulted in the sinking of a ship.
FEATURED ARTICLES 2020 |
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BY ROBBIN LAIRD
The Royal Australian Navy plays a big part in Australia’s extensive transformation process. The new procurement approach has been labelled a “continuous shipbuilding process,” and has the potential to impact defence procurement processes of its allies.
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.
General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), announced, in March 2020, the list of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) appointments, promotions, and retirements for 2020, and then announced his own retirement in July.
In naval warfare, one of the best tools for area denial is the anti-ship missile system. Iran is developing sophisticated anti-ship missile systems to counter any offensive advantage posed by its adversaries.
Personnel changes in your defence community include: Raytheon, DRS, ADGA, MDA, DND, Canadian Embassy in Washington, Cdn Forces College, and Climatopolis.
BY KEN POLE
Accurate plotting of a potential enemy's next moves has seen militaries worldwide rely increasingly on sophisticated technologies for strategic advantage, and that's where NATO's Airborne Early Warning & Control force comes in.
BY CHRIS MACLEAN
Will 2020 finally be the year in which listening turns to hearing, and then to action? Change has begun. Hopefully our leaders will embrace and assist this grassroots progress, but if not, to borrow from General Mattis, we can still do it together. What will you do?
BY KEN POLE
As 2020 rolled in, few could have guessed that members of the Canadian Armed Forces would soon be helping elderly Canadians battle an invisible enemy: the novel coronavirus that had emerged in China's Wuhan province in late 2019.
BY EUGENE GERDEN
Despite the pandemic, many European NATO members are considering raising their combat potential as one way to stimulate economies that were negatively affected by efforts to control and mitigate the effects of COVID-19.
BY JAMES FRYER
A clearer distinction between 'compulsory' and 'discretionary' missions will help ensure the military's relevance for the most important challenges facing Canadians.
BY ROSS FETTERLY
As COVID continues to force the federal government to implement measures that will inject liquidity into the economy, now is the time to reflect on annual defence budgets and the impact on capabilities from long-term funding shifts.