Big week

Babble on.

It's going to be a big week for foreign affairs and defence here in Canada. The Commons Defence Committee is releasing a report today on military procurement. The government is also supposed to release its long-awaited International Policy Statement (IPS) today, and the related Defence Policy Statement (DPS) tomorrow.

I don't know if I'll have the opportunity to review any of these documents in the detail they deserve. In the meantime, I'll direct your attention to an article by Stephen Thorne that covers the Conference of Defence Associations' presentation to the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs (NDDN) - not that you would know a thing about it by visiting the NDDN website (ht:Debbye):

"At present, the department has inadequate numbers and expertise . . . to execute the existing capital acquisition plan," the association said in a report to the Commons defence committee.

"Existing approaches to military acquisitions and a dearth of project expertise lead to the troubling conclusion that transformation of the Canadian Forces . . . would not be possible before the year 2020."

The conclusions come as the all-party committee prepares to release a report on military procurement Monday. The panel is expected to say defence purchasing is weighed down in politics and inefficiency. [Babbler: politics? ya think?]
...
"In the last six months, those responsible for advancing capital acquisition projects have missed 90 per cent of their milestones," says the report.

"When that staff was twice its current size, it took 15 years to process major acquisitions."

The Commons panel is expected to conclude that four years of political delays imposed by ex-prime minister Jean Chretien contributed to deterioration of the used submarine fleet Canada acquired from Britain in the 1990s. [Babbler: I almost got sued for suggesting much less than this - simply that it was unseemly for Liberals connected with the Chretien government to grieve publicly over Lt (N) Chris Saunders' death]
...
During the tender process for the 1980s purchase of CF-18 fighter jets, only 25 per cent of the specifications focused on the military's technical and operational requirements for the aircraft.

Three-quarters of the data the government released to bidders related to industrial benefits, offsets, job creation and technology transfer.

The conference warns that if existing public administration practices at DND don't change, "a long period of dormancy awaits many military capabilities.

"As a consequence, some of these capabilities may be lost."

In a recent speech, Defence Minister Bill Graham agreed on the need to streamline military purchasing, saying it must be made a priority.

As I've mentioned before, if the biggest problem with military procurement is political interference, the Liberals are the last party in the House of Commons - and, yes, I mean I'd put the BQ ahead of them here - I'd trust to fix the process.

Babble off.