A 22-year-old Ontario man, Ikar Mao, has been charged by RCMP with one count of leaving Canada to participate in a terrorist group and one count of actual participation. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on each charge. An RCMP spokesperson, explaining that the investigation is ongoing, says Mao was accused of involvement in the Islamic State.

The U.S. government has joined in a whistleblower lawsuit which alleges that Illinois-based Navistar defrauded the Department of Defense by inflating costs in a 2007 contract to supply Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles to the Marine Corps. Confirming the government’s decision to become involved, Jody Hunt, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Department of Justice, said in a Dec. 4 statement that “contractors who falsify information to induce the military to pay inflated prices will be held accountable.” The suit originates with a former Navistar employee.

Development of innovative textiles and “smart” materials to improve protection against chemical and biological threats is being pushed by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Its Biological Technologies Office says the current threat environment is comprised of “broadly acting, highly pathogenic, and sometimes immediately lethal threats that are capable of entering the body.” It also says warfighters still are at risk despite decades-long substantial investments by the U.S.. 

The results of a national U.S. opinion poll on security has disclosed that a significant number of Americans continue to believe that Russia is a U.S. ally. Conducted for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, it shows, among other things, that 28 per cent held that view, up from 19 per cent in a similar 2018 poll. Ironically, however, 71 per cent of the latest survey group see Russia as a threat to the U.S. and 25 per cent call it the greatest threat. Cyber attacks were seen as the top “near term threat” with nearly 90 per cent of those polls expressing concern about attacks on government and nearly as many concerned about their personal computers and accounts.

A U.S. Coast Guard contract for new offshore cutters, worth a potential $10.5 billion, is going to be up for retendering because hurricane damage at the original Florida shipyard which was chosen means that the already delayed program would fall further behind schedule and overall costs would rise. A contract for three additional vessels has yet to be finalized.

When French President Emmanuel Macron declared recently that "we are experiencing the brain death of NATO", he was stating longstanding French policy favouring a more united Europe and less dependence on the U.S. for security. So says James Dobbins, a former U.S. State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. While he says Macron is right to wonder how President Donald Trump would respond to any threat to Europe, he was wrong to attribute the uncertainty to any diminished support for the alliance among Americans generally.

Persistent and substantial maintenance delays are hindering the U.S. Navy’s its ability to be ready for operations and training. The Government Accountability Office says vessels have spent at least 33,700 more days in maintenance than expected due to insufficient shipyard capacity and a shortage of skilled workers, among other things. The GAO also says that while the USN is trying to remedy the situation, it has not complied with 11 of 17 earlier recommendations.

Helping veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is the reason for a new U.S. Postal Service stamp. Proceeds from sales will be donated to the Department of Veterans Affairs and to the National Center for PTSD.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says the U.S. has completed its military pullback in northeastern Syria, settling into a more stable posture of about 600 troops in the rest of the country. That represents a 40 per cent reduction since President Donald Trump’s initial withdrawal order in October, but Esper says he still can redeploy smaller numbers as needed.

A reservist in Calgary with a history of ties to hate groups and spreading racism is being investigated by the Royal Canadian Navy nearly four years after enlisting. Boris Mihajlovic was an administrator of a now-defunct neo-Nazi website as well as being involved with another froup identified by the government as a terrorist organization. Mihajlovic now says no longer holds those views and has tried to turn his life around.

With Canada and several other NATO members still struggling to reach the alliance’s stated goal of two per cent of national GDP on defence, a former senior U.S. diplomat responsible for NATO policy says three per cent would be a more useful goal. Daniel S. Hamilton, now the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, says the alliance “must be prepared to confront a wider variety of challenges."

A Canberra-based think-tank, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says 43 Chinese universities should be considered “very high” or “high” risk to deal with because of their work on defence projects. The assessment by the ASPI, which is partly funded by the U.S. State Department, comes just weeks after the Australian government published guidelines for universities on how to reduce the threat of foreign entities leveraging academic research. The institute also launched a database that classifies risk posed by research partnerships with some 160 Chinese universities, security institutions and defence industry groups.

The U.S. Air Force sees systems integration as the key to military effectiveness but it says a budget hike is needed to turn its vision into reality. A key element of preparedness would be an ability to link so that combat could be replicated can replicate combat on a massive scale. “Individual weapon system simulators can help our men and women become proficient tacticians, but it’s their ability to integrate and connect that will differentiate us against a peer threat,” says Gen. Stephen Wilson, Vice Chief of Staff, adding that the USAF plans to spend “a lot of money” on multidomain command and control in its next five-year plan.

Looking ahead to the 2020 presidential election, the U.S. Marine Corps has issued a directive on what’s off-limits to personnel in terms of their political activity. Troops on active duty and civilian personnel can use social media but must clarify that their views are individual and not those of the USMC or the Department of Defense. It also states, among other things, that sharing or linking to a political page would be akin to distributing material on behalf of the source.

A spokesman for the Kremlin says reports that NATO plans to increase defence spending is proof that Moscow is right to be concerned about what it sees is the alliance’s eastward expansion. “We see that NATO carries out actions aimed at containment and expansion with regards our country,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a confrence call, adding that his country would not engage in a costly arms race.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Turkey has walked back its refusal to support the alliance’s defence plan for the Baltics and Poland until other NATO members supported Turkey’s fight with the Syrian Kurdish militia it calls a terrorist organization. He also told reporters Dec. 4 that NATO wants a better relationship with Russia and that he feels China must be involved in arms limitations or reductions talks.

A day after China banned U.S. military ships and aircraft from visiting Hong Kong, Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff , spoke by telephone Dec. 3 with Gen. Li Zuocheng, head of the Joint Staff Department in China’s Central Military Commission. The U.S. says they “agreed on the value of a productive dialogue, effectively managing differences, and cooperation on areas of common ground.”

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not mention President Donald Trump by name during a Dec. 3 cocktail gathering in Buckingham Palace, Trudeau is being called “two-faced” by the U.S. President over some overhead comments. During a chat with his British and Dutch counteparts, French President Emmanuel Macron and Princess Anne, Trudeau had said Trump was late due to his lengthy press conferences. Asked the following morning to comment, Trump said, “well, he’s two-faced” and suggested the PM was reacting to U.S. pressure to spend more on defence. “I can imagine he’s not that happy, but that’s the way it is.”

Colorado weapons manufacturer Capco LLC, without admitting liability, has agreed to a $1 million settlement for allegedly shipping ineffective M320 grenade launchers to the U.S. Army. The Justice Department of Justice says company officials knew the barrels did not meet specifications and that two shipments included launchers with firing pins made of the wrong steel.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing renewed pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump about Canada’s financial commitment to NATO. During a Dec. 3 meeting at the alliance leaders' meeting in London, Trump said Canada is “just slightly delinquent” in that it is not spending two per cent of its GDP on defence. NATO has said Canada is on the way to 1.31 but Trudeau, highlighting other Canadian commitments, initially put it at 1.35 per cent before rounding it up to an aspirational 1.4.

A junior non-commissioner officer in Canadian Special Operations Forces Command was able to steal more than $23,000 worth of equipment over a 15-month period even though CANSOFCOM says all its tracking protocols were in place. Cpl. Pedro Collier, charged in October 2018 with five Criminal Code offences, received a suspended sentence and was placed on probation for 12 months after pleading guilty, but the Department of National Defence now is reviewing its options for administrative action. 

Aircraft manufacturers from around the world made training platforms a focus of their presence at the latest Dubai Air Show. One of the few major military contracts formally signed was for a United Arab Emirates procurement of 24 Calidus B-250 turboprop trainers developed by Abu Dhabi-based Calidus in collaboration with Rockwell Collins, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Novaer.

The U.S. Navy has awarded its largest-ever shipbuilding contract, worth some $22.2 billion, to General Dynamics Electric Boat for construction of nine new attack submarines. An option for an additional boat, one short of what the USN proposed in its budget plan, would increase the contract value by $2 billion.

As the U.S. Air Force looks increasingly to virtual reality for accelerating pilot training while also cutting costs, CAE Inc. is debuting its answer at a major conference and trade show this week in Orlando, Fla. The CAE TRAX Academy curriculum and Sprint Virtual Reality trainer evidently inspired by the USAF Pilot Training Next program.

Mineral-rich Greenland has replaced terrorism and cybercrime at the top of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service’s national security agenda. The service’s head, Lars Findsen, a lawyer and former Secretary of State at Denmark’s Ministry of Defence, says the shift is due to the way a “power game is unfolding” between the U.S. and other Arctic powers.

Daniel R. DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, a U.S. foreign policy organization focused on “a realistic grand strategy”, says NATO will be guilty of “a grave error in judgment” if it opts for a business-as-usual stance at this week’s summit in London. He says the alliance is suffering from a crisis of confidence and needs to reassess itself, especially those members who continue to spend “a paltry amount” on defence.

Dirk Hoke, chief executive officer at Airbus Defence and Space, says 2020 will be critical for Europe’s defence suppliers, especially in aviation, given the current focus on a new fighter platform and unmanned aerial system. He says next year will show how seriously companies take the projects because major contractual and financing milestones will have to be achieved as NATO’s European members try to achieve a defence spending target of two per cent of their national GDP. 

Dutch Chief of Defence Adm. Rob Bauer says it would be “stupid” for the U.K. not to remain closely involved in European Union defence projects even if it withdraws from the EU. Bauer points out that even if the U.K. does drop out, it will remain part not only of Europe but also of NATO. “If the focus in Europe is on security then the UK should be part of that. To do otherwise would be stupid.”

The Royal Navy and Royal Marines face seemingly divergent trends as they contemplate littoral operations in which seizing and holding areas for short periods are critical to post-conflict negotiations. According to the Royal United Services Institute, precision-strike capabilities, ISR systems and other technologies will make traditional amphibious assaults and ship-to-objective manoeuvres increasingly difficult.

A preliminary report on the mid-October crash of an RCAF Snowbird preparing for the Atlanta Air Show indicates that an engine issue led to the ejection of Capt. Kevin Domon-Grenier. He had just performed a routine check with the CT-114 Tutor jet inverted but when he rolled upright at low altitude and selected full power, the engine did not respond normally. Domon-Grenier was taken to hospital but released that evening. The Snowbird fleet, 431 Air Demonstration Squadron, was immediately grounded but has since returned to their Saskatchewan base.

A $900 million class action lawsuit on behalf of Canadian Armed Forces personnel who were victims of sexual assault and misconduct has been signed off by Federal Court Justice Simon Fothergill, some four months after the settlement was announced by the government, which did not admit any liability. The case was initiated by seven veterans on behalf of other veterans as well as current CAF members. The settlement provides for compensation ranging from $5,000 to $55,000.

Veterans Affairs Canada evidently has shied away from the proposed use of social media “influencers” to get its message out to former Canadian Armed Forces personnel. STIFF Sentences Inc., hired by the government in 2018, had pitched a list 15 prospects the company felt could help the department to spruce up its image and promote its policies.

A revised funding formula which reduces U.S. contributions to NATO’s common fund has been announced just days before President Donald Trump arrives in London for a meeting of the alliance’s political leaders. The U.S. will see its share reduced to 16 per cent from 20 per cent, the same amount due from Germany, with the other allies accounting for the balance.

Former CSIS Director Richard Fadden says recent Conservative and Liberal governments have “failed abominably” on some foreign policy issues, notably China. He told an Ottawa panel Nov. 27 that having sat in on cabinet meetings for years, he concluded that while the governments of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper, tried hard to articulate policy, “they both failed abominably because there was no consensus.”