Blunt talk on military challenges is a ‘good thing,’ retired defence chief says – National | 24CA News
Three retired Canadian defence leaders say chief of defence employees Gen. Wayne Eyre making the best transfer in sharing public statements in regards to the challenges going through the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) round personnel shortages, getting old tools and operational readiness.
This degree of candor just isn’t often seen amongst navy leaders with regards to sharing points with the CAF, however retired Royal Canadian Air Force commander and former chief of defence employees Gen. Tom Lawson sees it as a constructive.
“I think good, clear talk at this time is a good thing. And I did say earlier that I’m optimistic. I think him sharing some of these short–term problems helps him [Gen. Wayne Eyre] deal with it,” Lawson informed The West Block host Mercedes Stephenson.
On the Jan. 7, 2024 episode, Stephenson sat down with Lawson, retired Royal Canadian Navy Commander Vice-Admiral Mark Norman and retired vice-chief of defence employees Lt.-Gen. Guy Thibault to debate the problems going through the CAF.
“Some of the problems that the chief and his entire leadership cadre are dealing with are bigger and internal compared to what the three of us dealt with,” Lawson mentioned.
“The shortage of personnel, the rusting out of fleets and the shortage of spare parts, really things that make it very tough today. And then of course, on top of all that, the decrease in the budget that was just announced.”
As a part of broader budgetary deliberations, Defence Minister Bill Blair has been tasked with shaving $1 billion off defence expenditures. Blair beforehand mentioned they’re on the lookout for efficiencies in areas like consulting and administration.
Meanwhile, the CAF is working in an more and more unstable world with the continuing conflict in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas battle, navy posturing from China and growing calls to assist help on pure disasters.
“This is, unfortunately, kind of a perfect storm of all of these challenges overlapping in time and space with the mounting external challenges related to global security,” Norman mentioned.
“The team that’s trying to manage to lead their way through this. Everywhere they turn, they’ve got another they got another roadblock, obstacle and challenge.”
While recruitment throughout the CAF and tools challenges are urgent day-to-day issues, Norman sees time as the foundation of the problems.
“The challenge is one of time and you can’t compress time. It’s taken decades for these problems to really come home to roost the way that we’re seeing them play out now and there is no quick fix. Even if there was an appetite and a will to try and fix it,” he mentioned.
Canada has additionally confronted questions on its means to fulfill commitments like spending two per cent of GDP on defence as outlined in our membership in NATO.
Thibault mentioned that Canada is exhibiting it might probably nonetheless be a participant on the worldwide stage, pointing to a joint operation in Lativa being led by Canada, however acknowledged the shortcomings.
“We have capabilities that are useful, but we don’t have the full kind of capability suite to be able to match the expectations for Canada to fully to meet our alliance contribution,” Thibault mentioned.
“The Canadian Forces are an insurance policy that are there for those emergencies that you can’t foresee, and so not being ready is kind of the risk that we take by not being ready for that which is unforeseen.”
The retired CAF leaders agree there are constructive steps on the procurement aspect, with Lawson pointing to greater than $40 billion in Air Force contracts upgrading Canada’s fleet of navy planes over the subsequent few many years.
However, Norman stresses the necessity to healthful long-term planning to make sure there are individuals to assist function and keep new navy tools.
“Even new stuff is a long way away and it eventually becomes old stuff,” Norman mentioned. “And that has to be factored into the long-term planning.”
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