I hope everyone is having a great summer and so far August has been an excellent weather month. We ended off our last speaker in June before the summer break with a memorable presentation on Cyprus. We watched a new documentary film calledCaught in the Crossfire which was followed by an informative question period led by three soldiers who served in Cyprus, LGen (Retired) Marc Caron, MGen (Retired) Clive Milner and LCol (Retired) Ronny Brandon. It was an excellent evening and it really spoke to the dedication, bravery of so many Canadian soldiers who deployed to Cyprus during the 1960s through 90s.
It was a quiet summer here in Canada on the defence front but Canada did make a huge decision selecting German Shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp marine Systems (TKMS) as the preferred bidder to build up to 12 new Type 212CD diesel-electricsubmarines in a historic multi-billion dollar procurement deal. This was announced by our PM in July and we will receive our first four submarines in the mid-2030s. There continue to be discussions on our future fighter fleet with many different options on the table. Our trade talks with the US are definitely a significant factor and we hope to see a decision made on the F35s or a mixed F35/Gripen fleet. The Ukraine conflict and Iran War both continue to be at the forefront of the news and neither will be over in the near future. Ukraine is running out of interceptors and the US fully understands that they can ill afford to continue the fight against a resilient Iran. It can be easily argued that the Middle East has become less predictable and stable since Trump attacked back in February 2026. Together, these two conflicts point to greater uncertainty in the world and the need for NATO and its allies to increase their defence capabilities for the future.
We held a joint RKUSI/RCMI Sundowner event at the Fort end of July which was an enormous success despite the fact that the patio component was rained out. It was wonderful to see the great turnout of 100 attendees and thanks to Bob Hamilton for leading the charge and organizing the evening, and also for gallantly assisting with the funding of the Prosecco Bar!
I would like to thank Bruce Ewing who just recently ended his time as our editor for the Torch. Bruce is extremely dedicated and he was a tremendous member of our Executive Team for the past two years. Bruce is another go-getter who has a number of irons in the fire and we wish him the best with all his other important initiatives. He is staying on with RKUSI.
As a reminder we have our Defence Forum coming up on 30 October and we are co-partnering this event with our Kingston Economic Development Corporation. The theme isRace to Readiness and we will focus on modernization, mobilization and procurement. It looks like we will enjoy another full day of first rate presenters.
I look forward to seeing everyone back on September 17th for our talk on procurement which will be presented by Leona Alleslev. Leona is a former Member of Parliament and military officer and she is also a member of our RKUSI.
I would finally like to thank my executive team (Bryan Bailey, Ron Blank, Jim Davis, Denis Levesque, Mike McKeown, John Macdonald, Robin Pepper, and Bob Myhill (Past President) for all their great work and dedication as we continue to build and shape our RKUSI.
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