Author Kenneth Epps Published in The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 35 Issue 2 Summer 2014 When the Canada First Defence Strategy was announced in 2008 the government promised that nearly half-a-trillion dollars would be spent on the operations and equipment of the Canadian Armed Forces over a 20-year period. This budget did not include significant supplementary funding for the Canadian Forces …
Unsolicited advice for the new Defence Analytics Institute
By Kenneth Epps As a further response to the sorry state of Canada’s defence procurement process, on February 19 the government announced the establishment of an “interim” Defence Analytics Institute (DAI), which will be jointly hosted by the University of Calgary and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. The Institute’s interim board of directors will be chaired by Tom …
The F-35 is not a job creation program
By Kenneth Epps Members of the Canadian Joint Strike Fighter Industrial Group (CJIG) will host a webinar on January 30 to promote the economic benefits of a purchase of the F-35 Joint Striker aircraft by Canada. The webinar is advertised as a free webcast open to all Canadians. No doubt the CJIG will present a Canadian F-35 purchase as a …
Redefining industrial benefits: The F-35 program
Lest anyone thinks that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is out of the running for Canada’s replacement fighter aircraft program, Industry Canada has just issued its third report on the prospective benefits Canada’s military aerospace industry can anticipate if Canada places an order. In sum, the report provides an updated total of $9.93 billion (U.S.) for “contracts and identified …
Additions and amendments: An overview of what Canada would need to do to meet the terms of the Arms Trade Treaty
Author Kenneth Epps The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 34 Issue 2 Summer 2013 At the time of writing, Canada is not expected to be an early signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The Department of Foreign Affairs has invited interested public parties in Canada to join a departmental “technical assessment” of the ATT, which is unlikely to provide recommendations for the …
Will Santa deliver F-35 industrial benefits?
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter debacle has delivered an early Christmas present to Canadian (and some attentive international) media. Columnists and commentators across the country have gleefully heaped criticism and scorn on the government about the ballooning costs of the F-35. Two KPMG reports released this week calculated F-35 program expenditures to be much higher than earlier public guesses, including …
Beyond the Cold War: It’s time for Canadian military procurement processes to be updated, argues a Canadian Forces Colonel
Author John Siebert The Ploughshares Monitor Volume 33 Issue 3 Right now criticising Canadian military procurement practices is a little too much like shooting fish in a barrel. There are too many targets too close together in a confined space. If inclined you can simply take a number, get in line, and blast away: The purchase of F-35 fighter jets …
Examining Canada’s military budget
Author John Siebert The Ploughshares Monitor Summer 2012 Volume 33 Issue 2 The multibillion-dollar military procurement plans outlined in the 2008 Canada First Defence Strategy (CFDS)1 have run up squarely against the imperatives of the government’s fiscal policies. The goal of balancing the federal budget by 2015–16 requires cuts in previously announced capital spending plans at the Department of National …
An analysis of Canadian defence capital spending
Author Bill Robinson The Ploughshares Monitor Summer 2012 Volume 33 Issue 2 Bill Robinson writes on Canadian defence policy and arms control issues. He was on the staff of Project Ploughshares from 1986 to 2001. The Canada First Defence Strategy (CFDS) (DND 2008a) projected a total of $490-billion in Department of National Defence (DND) spending over the 20 years from …
Sober recommendations for Canada’s aerospace industry
A common boast running through both government and industry statements supporting Canada’s purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is that Canada’s aerospace industry will do well in the global competition for F-35 contracts. According to Industry Canada, for example, “in order to maximize affordability, the partner countries [in the F-35 program] agreed to a best-value approach to industrial participation …