Here is to hoping that all of you get some time in the sun and warmth as it continues to be a full-on Canadian winter!
Our January speaker was Lieutenant General (Retired) Blaise Frawley who just retired from the Forces after 40 years of impressive service. He was the Deputy Commander of NORAD until last year. He gave us a tremendous presentation on NORAD which included discussions about our relationship with the US, Greenland, the Golden Dome, and on Canada’s much needed capabilities to improve our defence of the north and how we can safeguard our sovereignty.
His presentation followed our Prime Minister’s powerful speech at Davos where our PM emphasized that he envisioned Canada becoming a great power among the middle powers around the world. We all know that to achieve the PM’s intent we will have a significant amount of work to do and LGen Frawley made it clear that we currently only contribute between 10-15 percent of NORAD capabilities. The time is right for us to improve our find/fix/strike capabilities with state of the art over-the-horizon radars, missile defence capabilities, drones, new fighters, and naval capabilities. We know that we are close to many decisions that we have been waiting far too long for. He concluded with a definitive statement that the F-35 is by far the fighter we need to enable us to better defend Canada and to meet our NORAD commitments. He also warned that a mixed fleet option would have serious negative impact on the Air Force.
I attended a Conference of Defence Associates (CDA) gathering in Ottawa on January 27th. All level three Commanders (Army, Navy, and Air Force) were present, along with MPs and defence industry CEOs. I managed to speak to all the Commanders including the Air Force Commander who stated that an announcement will be made shortly concerning the acquisition of the F-35 which is presently under review. I also spoke to the Navy Commander, Vice Admiral Angus Topshee, who indicated that the submarine proposals from Germany and South Korea are due on March 2nd and he hopes that a decision will be made by May. He would take either one of them. The Army is pushing ahead with plans to significantly bolster its armoured forces. On the wish list are more than 250 armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs), as well as an upgrade to the existing Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBTs). Despite all the progress, no one seemed fully satisfied with the sense of urgency in procuring new capabilities and there still is no announced plan on how Canada would mobilize or grow the force.
This coming Thursday we very much look forward to our own Dr, Stéfanie von Hlatky who will discuss “Reinventing NATO; Reconciling Core Values and Strategic Imperatives”. She has attended several of the recent NATO meetings and she will provide insight relevant to NATO’s evolution. Lastly, Bryan and I will attend the annual CDA Conference in Ottawa in early March thanks to CDAI.
I hope to see many of you this week!