I watched an interesting video the other day on Facebook. It was one of Canada鈥檚 new maritime helicopters, a Lockheed Martin (formerly Sikorsky) CH-148 Cyclone. The chopper was actually operationally deployed on a Canadian frigate, and doing things such choppers are supposed to do, like deploying its sonar.
Wow, that鈥檚 pretty cool. It took us nearly three decades to get to this point. I鈥檝e been writing this column for 27 years, and one of my earliest columns talked about then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien cancelling the Sea King replacement, then known as the EH-101. (鈥淚 will take my pen and write zero 鈥榚licopters, Chretien,鈥� he famously said at the time.
It seems I end up writing a similar column every few years, because nothing changes. Our military procurement over the last three decades has been a farce beyond words.
It鈥檚 going to take until something like 2022 before our new helicopters are fully deployed, even though the last Sea King finally went out of service not too long ago.
We are soon going to see an 鈥渙pen competition鈥� for a new fighter plane. Curiously, this competition will begin with less than five months remaining in the current Justin Trudeau government鈥檚 mandate, before the October federal election.
This is to buy 88 planes (up from the 65 F-35s the Stephen Harper Conservative government had announced, then reneged on.) This supposed open competition will take place despite Trudeau promising not to buy the F-35, even though Canada signed up for the plane鈥檚 program in 2006. We鈥檝e already contributed $500 million towards it.
The Liberals eventually acknowledged it wouldn鈥檛 be that open of a competition with one of the leading contenders not allowed to participate. So it should be in, unless it鈥檚 not.
Apparently there are currently issues with the Americans about Canada鈥檚 industrial benefits policy regarding the plane. (Countries usually try to finagle as much as they can out of such a purchase through 鈥渋ndustrial benefits.鈥�) They sent us some nasty letters last year pointing out our prior obligations. So who knows what鈥檚 going to happen?
All I know for sure is that we still don鈥檛 have new fighters, and Israel is standing up its second squadron of F-35s already. We鈥檙e buying Australia鈥檚 old F-18s to supplement our worn out fleet. Why are they for sale? Because Australia鈥檚 bought the F-35 already.
As for the ships those aforementioned choppers are supposed to land on, the former vice chief of defence staff is currently being dragged through the courts on a bovine feces charge regarding a supposed leak regarding procuring a desperately needed supply ship. He was a big supporter of what became the MV Asterix, which we are currently leasing, to replace the now-retired two supply ships we used to operate. We鈥檙e still down one. We could have another, but there鈥檚 a lot of politics around that, too.
The politics are so bad, that Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, the officer whose career has been destroyed in this, isn鈥檛 even having his lawyers paid for by the government. He鈥檚 paying for it out of his own pocket, and a GoFundMe page that鈥檚 supporting him. How insane is that?
Our supposedly awesome national shipbuilding strategy, announced several years ago, had yet to even begin cutting steel on a fleet of up to 15 ships to replace our rusted out and retired destroyers, and eventually our frigates as well. If things keep going at the pace they have been for the helicopters and fighters, I expect we鈥檒l see the last ship delivered in the 22nd century.
All of this is just scratching the surface of the absolute calamity that military procurement has become. To those who think I鈥檓 a Conservative apologist, I flail them equally with the Liberals in this regard. Very, very few programs in recent years have successfully supplied our military with the hardware they need. I鈥檓 sure there are officers who have spent the bulk of their careers dealing with this, and will retire with little satisfaction.
Nothing seems to work, and no one seems to accomplish anything. I think this is largely because governments, both red and blue, would prefer to punt programs down the road at every opportunity they get, and spend money elsewhere.
It鈥檚 an embarrassment. It鈥檚 ridiculous. And apparently, it鈥檚 entirely Canadian.
It was recently announced that retired Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, formerly head of the Canadian Army, will not be running again for the Liberals, whose back bench he鈥檚 spent the last 3.5 years warming as a member of Parliament. He鈥檚 apparently expected to testify on behalf of Vice-Admiral Norman, which is likely one of the reasons he never got the post of defence minister.
His last role in uniform was as 鈥渃hief of transformation.鈥� I wonder, if Leslie had ended up in defence, if things would have changed? Maybe we would have seen some success in defence procurement, finally.
Now we鈥檒l never know.
