Defense Watch Watch

Canadian Chinooks: hella strong frogmouth

David Pugliese is a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, who among other things reports on Canadian and international defense issues. He also maintains the Defense Watch blog, which, ah, reports on those issues. It's very useful if you want to keep up with the surrealist practices of DND [Department of National Defense] procurement, who's mandate appears to be literally to "spend money on anything but capability" for national defense. Defense Watch Watch will be me posting from time to time selections that I found interesting/infuriating/some other strong emotion. 

Cormorant helicopters to be modernized by Italian firm. The EH-101 is our Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter. Also buried in the article is some interesting details: Canada buying the failed EH-101 Marine 1 airframes not only gave Canada more EH-101s they could use, it also fixed the 'no spare parts problem' that the type had because of DND incompetence. So that was a smart move;

Operation Useless Dirts have cost America $2.8 trillion, says report.  Canada's GDP last year was $1.5 trillion by comparison;

related, US gov watchdog lays out reasons why Afghan mission 'mostly failed';

(Canadian peeps I advise a stiff drink ready to hand) Fairness monitor reports on the Canadian Surface combatant remain secret. Some context for those not following the NSP:
The National Shipbuilding program broadly has two components: the building of a whole bunch of ships that Canada allowed to rust out though political cowardice on the part of National Politicians (such as science vessels, Icebreakers, naval supply ships, essential if Royal Canadian Navy is to operate globally, etc.)  This has generated its share of controversy; most notably the #2 man in the Canadian Military, Vice- Admiral Mark Norman being fired for fighting the Liberal government's gormless attempt to *not* buy a supply ship from the Davies Shipyard in Quebec.[1]

The most controversial part of the NSP is also the biggest: the new "surface combatant" to replace the now rusted out Iroquois class destroyers and the middle aged Halifax-class frigates. It was the hope of the NSP to replace both with 15 super-frigates that could do both the jobs that the Halifax and the Iroquois did. The whole thing is not going well. Canada closed its Naval Architecture office in the 1990s, so Canada has to license a design from someone else. The DND announced it needed $54 million just to properly **evaluate** the bids for the surface combatant. The Danes Arctic patrol ship embarrasses the NSP by its very existence, as it is both in service and costs ten times less than the Canadian equivalent. It also seems that despite starting off with the desire to only buy proven technology, the Lockheed/BAE project of the forthcoming Type 26 Frigate, which is supposed to sail in 2026, so goalposts might be moving as well - strongly implying that Lockheed/BAE managed to tempt the Government with some baksheesh.

So things are not good in the NSP, specifically the new warship program.

Further reading:

Prof. Michael Byers, 'Onto the Rocks: with disaster looming, National Shipbuilding Strategy needs urgent change of course'

[1] Davies was shut out of the NSP. When oil prices tanked, they were constructing a supply ship to be used in the oil industry, which suddenly didn't want it. The Conservative government at the time agreed to let Davies complete the supply ship for the RCN,, which was in desperate need of one, having literally lost its ancient supply ships through wear and corrosion and didn't have a replacement for it. This upset Irving Shipyard, as this was a ship it was supposed to build for the NSP - in several years time. Irving then started providing notes to cabinet as to how to not buy the Davies ship - and Norman started helping Davies to fight back against this. While Norman was fired for this, he's not going quietly, and the resulting legal shenanigans will likely make Norman look exemplary and the Liberal Government extremely bad. Meanwhile, the lease of the well-named MV Astreix has gone through, and it is currently the only ship entering the RCN in recent years that has been on-time and on-budget.