weaponeer

If we pull out we will only enbolden these idiots, and it will only get worse. It is funny, the people who want to pull out, who cannot take the heat are all of the folks back home, those not over here, those not affected by this at all. You do not see soldiers at the tip of the spears saying "run, retreat, we surrender, it is too hard, we want to come home". If we pull out, I will not be the Canadian soldier that shamed Canada, and left these people to their fate!!!

The last point, This is because we collectively chose a nation not to give a dam about our armed forces, defending Canada has always been someone else’s responsibility. All gov't, with the exception of PM St. Laurent, neglected our defence. Now we are paying for it, and if we do not wake up soon, and put the billions required into the military, we may live to see parts of Canada take/given to someone else…

Hello everyone, mind if I add my 2 cents as an Airforce guy, The CP140s were originally purchased in 1982, 18 for anti-sub work in the N Atlantic. They were intended to work with the navy to keep the shipping lanes to Europe open in WW3. In the late 80's we purchased 3 more form Lockheed, they were the last three produced and the country that wanted then opted out so we bought them. The CP140 is an excellent plane, and has served Canada well, however it is a victim of both age and misuse. They are 25 year old planes, they have spent 25 years flying low and slow over our ocean approaches. They have not had a major upgrade, they are tired. As for misuse, we have not used them for their intended function. Instead of using them as an anti-sub, anti-shipping weapons platform, we have used them (burning up airframe hours and life cycle) on fisheries and pollution patrols, counting fish, and every other job except that for which they were intended. Again as I have said before, it is not the militaries job to count fish and catch polluters, thats the RCMP & DFO's job. Used the CP140, you do not have to buy planes for RCMP & DFO... Due to a lack of funding in the 90's, the Airforce mothballed three CP140's, bringing the fleet back down to 18, 13 in Greenwood NS, and 5 in Comox BC, NONE IN THE ARCTIC! As well with the lack of funding, there were fewer flying hours avail. Planes that DO NOT FLY, break. The more you fly them, the more they work!! Another problem, the Airforce in the 90's, in order to save $$ went to a lower grade of fuel, JP5, that resulted in the CP140 fleet developing serious leaks in their fuel system. This problem has never been fixed. But the biggest problem with the CP140 is the fatigue on their wing struts. The planes all need to be re-winged in order to stay flying. It is almost cheaper to buy a new plane, which is I think the right thing to do. Technology has advance in recent years as you all know. The Airforce is seriously looking at recon UAVs to replace the CP140's in the coastal patrol mission. As it stand now, a CP140, with 13 crew leaves Greenwood NS on a 8 hour patrol. They are using their excellent IR, and optical sensors to patrol our waters, awesome piece of kit. They are on a photo recon, surveillance patrol, essentially a 13 man UAV!!! This is a waste of time effort and manpower. We could purchase about 10 Global Hawk UAVs, and cover all three at the same time (three airborne) with only three UAV operators working in shifts on the ground. (UAV operators are not pilots, they get paid less). A Global Hawk can stay airborne for 30 hours, does not need a 13 man crew, does not get tired etc.... What would then be the smart thing to do is buy about 18 P8 armed patrol aircraft (Boeing 737 airliner maritime patrol planes, see Boeing website). These could be used as our armed, anti-sub, anti-shipping platforms, that can respond to any threat Global Hawk identifies.... As it stands, the Airforce plan from what I am told is to stop the upgrade, park 6 of the current 18 CP140's, and only operate 12. The 6 parked planes would be rotated through with the other twelve to keep the maint even throughout the fleet. The Airforce is trying to extend their life til a replacement arrives....

Life should mean life. The rest of your natural life, you never see the outside again.... 25 years is not enough, life means forever!!!

Hi JDOBB, Here's a good read on the subject....... http://www.sfu.ca/casr/doc-dnd-amirs-pod.htm

The environment is not a Canadian issue alone, it is a world issue. How can we do anything about it if China and India do not play ball. We are going in circles, getting mad at each other over an issue we have no control over. This is planet earth, only the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, India and perhaps Japan have any real say on what happens, lets stop fooling and blaming ourselves. What can Harper do about crime in a minority gov't. We have ALL failed in this country on the crime issue. That Whitmore idiot who kidnapped those kids out west, why was he out of jail to begin with, why did he only get a 7 years sentence. Why, because we have all failed, he rapes kids, he should have been in jail, life no parole, it is simple. We are far too soft on those kinds of criminals in Canada. I think Harper will win, and get his majority. He is not the baby eating monster he was portrayed to be by the Libs. My closest friend is a big time, hard core Lib, and he has told me he likes Harper, and will vote Tory next election, that says something to me more than any poll. I voted Tory in the last election, and will do so again. Had the Libs put Iggy in, perhaps a different story....

Prior to my extended vacation here in Afghanistan, I worked on the CF18 modernization project. The Airforce tested the pods, and the SNIPER was the best. So much so in fact, the Airforce decided to for go some of the other capabilities the CF18's were to get in order to pay for it. In short, the Airforce diverted monies already allocated to the CF18 upgrade to pay for SNIPER, a much more important capability, there was to be no cost savings. The other companies product did not get picked, Airforce pilots tested it, they like the SNIPER better, that is all there is to this. The losing companies have a case of sour grapes and sued, and the trade tribunal caved in. Canada did not win here, we have lost a major capability, an excellent way to make our small Airforce way more capable. We once again failed to trust the military and let them do their jobs... which is the major reason our military is in the state it is in, and a major reason we have suffered some casualties in Afghanistan..........

I know the whole Cf18 issue with Bristol was political. I saw an excerpt from a recent interview with PM Mulrony where he admitted it was an error. The bottom line is that we are dealing with equipment we will be using in combat. We have a small military, we are a rich country, there is no reason not to have the forces properly equipped. We have been dragging our feet on this issue for years, now we have a gov't that says enough!! We in the military are constantly asked these days about required equipment and capabilities. I have been involved in several of these inquiries and have given my honest opinions. We the troops do not want equipment we do not need. It gets in the way, costs time and money we can ill afford. The SNIPER pod is worth the costs, it has superior capability to the others, that is why the Air Force wanted it. The Air Force cancelled some other unnecessary capabilities and upgrades to the CF18 in order to aquire the SNIPER pod. The money in question was already allocated to the CF18 upgrade program so there was/is not going to be a money savings, just a capability shortfall. The Air Force compared the three pods and chose the SNIPER, after all we are the experts in this. On a side note, nice to hear from you JDOBB, I will be home Oct 15, can't wait!!!

Afghanistan has already been Canada's longest war. Continuous combat for 5+ years already, WW1 was only 3.5, and we only fought on the ground for less than 2 in WW2. It will be almost seven years of combat by the time we pull out in Feb 2009. Our role will be combat, everyone in Afghanistan has a combat role whether they acknowledge it or not. "we are only here to do reconstruction" they say as the "workers" are escorted by an infantry company into the Afghan countryside.... Our role will be combat of some form, perhaps CF18's. We would not deploy them to support our own troops, perhaps we will use them to help someone else. Perhaps we will take on a combat role elsewhere, there is Somalia, Darfour etc... The war will continue. UBL said the other day, convert and he will end everything, perhaps we will cave in and all convert.

Hi Jdobb, This rant is not directed at you:) Once again I see that people just don't get it. IT IS ABOUT GIVING THE TROOPS THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT TO FIGHT WARS!!!! Stop with the who got what contract crap!!! Single source purchasing is based on the gov't going to their military experts (soldiers, sailors & airmen) and asking them what they need to accomplish the job. It is called trust, the gov't asked the fighter world what is the best product for PGM and they were told by the FIGHTER PILOTS that it is the SNIPER POD. We were supposed to buy 36 to outfit 80 fighters, now we'll be stuck with fewer, cheaper shittier pods........... way to go Canada, thanks once again!!!! Once again we'll be at the big show with the worst crap you could get us because you wanted to save $20 million to give to welfare people, even though there's not enough people in Alberta to fill all the jobs.... This gov't has single sourced many purchases, GOOD!! Only an IDIOT would buy a tactical airlift plane other than the C130J, it is the best on earth. We are only getting 17, so lets get the best 17 we can!!! Only an IDIOT would buy a strategic airlift plane other than the C17, it is the best on earth. We are only got 4, so we got the best 4 we could!!! We single sourced the Leopard 2 tanks, best in the world, thanks to the input of our armored troops... The SNIPER pod was picked for the CF18 because it is the best targeting pod available. It is the ONLY tgt pod that has both an air to ground and air to air capability. You can slave the pod seeker to the fire control radar and visually ID planes at extreme ranges, you can see and ID ground tgts at extreme ranges. This cuts down on "FRIENDLY FIRE" in a big way. It costs more because it is better, just like a BMW cost more than a Kia!! It also has data link capability so you can transmit tgt images real time, via satcomm anywhere you want. The CF18 was to be the first Hornets to get it, it is on the F16, and USAF F15E, and is going on to the USN F18 fleet soon. As well the RAF uses it on their Tornados.... but it is asll moot now...

NORAD, they were working in cooperation with the Alaskan NORAD command center.......

Gary Powers was an American U2 spy plane pilot shot down over Russia in 1960..... The Americans were spying on Russia and got caught..... Russia bombers flying outside (along side) our airspace are not really spying, anything they want to find out they could get off GOOGLE....... Canadian fighter pilots do have the right to self defence and can open fire in any airspace if for example the Russia bombers guns started to track them or if the bomber opened its bomb bay and started launching cruise missiles.... not likely, I hope....

Could I add something here as an Air Weapons Control Officer in the Canadian Airforce. Although I am currently over in Afghanistan I follow events back home at NORAD where I work. It was in fact my crew that did the intercept. They sent me the pics the CF18's took, very nice. The Russians have been doing this all along, not as much as in the Cold War, but them have been doing it. They are flying simulated strike missions against N America, drilling their bomber crews. Routine!!. We respond as they are bombers from an unaligned nation flying close to our territory. If a man walked down the sidewalk in front of your house, off your property, but in front of your home, with a shot gun over his shoulder you would want to know what was going on......

No to mention that when they do actually fight, it is usually the Foreign Legion that does it for them, all non-French.

The three services have some differences, the Airforce only has 1 French Wing, 3 Wg in Bagotville. They conduct all admin in French, but all flying operations are in English as those are the ICAO rules, and the NORAD rules. There is 1 French Helo Squadron at Valcartier, other that that it is all English. The Navy has two French lang frigates, Motreal & Ville De Quebec, all admin & ops are conducted in French. The Army has 3 Frech regts, R22R, Infantry, 12 RBC, tanks & 5 RALC, arty. They are assigned to 5 Birgade Group (French Canadian Brigade) in Valcartier, however they are all here in Khandahar these days. 5 BG is a French unit, all admin & ops in French. As a bilingual recruit you can join any service, and be assigned to any unit within that service. Being uni-lingual does not prevent you from being assigned to any unit either, the military would send you on a year long French/English course before you report for duty if it came to that. There are mnay anglos in 5 BG at Valcartier, however at work and on ops they speak French. There are many Fancos in English units as well. Many francos who join the military and leave Quebec do not want to go back, ever. They enjoy paying taxes in Alberta more than Quebec:) The segragation is only the UNIT. It is a French lang unit, or and English lang unit. There are francos & anglos in each however....

We were watching both CTV & CBC, and the first soldier was refered to several times as a Quebec soldier. It has now stopped I see, I know someone here was dealing with that. Danielle I believe is her name, is here from CTV, some folks mentioned it to her I believe. The reporters here are part of the "team", and we talk with them regularly offline about issues....

The US military desegragated because it was based on race, ours is language. Black & white soldiers could understand each other. You cannot have an officer in the heat of combat shouting out orders and commands to soldiers in both langs, it is stupid, you need one lang, cuts confussion & fog of war. If you are an English Canadian in the R22R, and there are some, you speak French only and French Canadians in the RCR, PPCLI, LSH(RC) speak only English. As for the fallen CANADIAN soldiers, NOT Quebec soldiers, thank you CBC/CTV RIP......

Yes, It works, but regt rivalry is normal, expected....

What many Canadians do not realize is that we have a segregated military, French units and English units, and none the two shall meet. We have a French fighter squardon and two english ones (one is training sqn), we have 3 infantry regts, 2 Eng, 1 French, two navy frigates, Montreal & Ville de Quebec, French ships, and countless sub-units...... Big rivalry...but it works...

Segregation not always a bad thing By SCOTT TAYLOR | 6:06 AM RECENT MEDIA reports out of Afghanistan have hinted that there is a slight (might be an understatement) rift between the outgoing anglophone Canadian units and the newly arrived French speaking Royal 22nd Regiment (Vandoos). One anecdote detailed how members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry were instructing their Afghan police recruits on some basic French phrases. Using phonetic repetition in the belief that they were learning how to say "Hello, how are you?" in French, the Afghans were overheard chanting "F- - - you, Vandoo" by an embedded journalist. Such sophomoric practical jokes could easily be dismissed as harmless inter-regimental rivalry, but those familiar with our army's recent past know that the animosity between our anglophone and francophone combat units runs deeper than that. One of the reasons for this is that the senior brass has consistently oversold the Vandoos, and the media have bought into the largely unwarranted hype without question. In the weeks leading up to the troop rotation currently underway, any reference to the Vandoos was invariably embellished with a glowing adjective such as "famed," "fabled" or "storied." (Or "vaunted.") Until now, the combat operations in Afghanistan have been conducted (repeatedly) by either the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry or the Royal Canadian Regiment, and yet neither of these units receives similarly fawning monikers in the national press. When one factors in that the casualty count of 66 dead and 260 wounded to date has been borne solely by these anglophone regiments, one can understand their resentment when headlines herald the francophones arrival with such phrases as "Vandoos bring can-do spirit to Afghanistan." Without having taken a single patrol outside the wire in Kandahar, one francophone officer told reporters he felt his troops could do "a better job" at reconstruction than the homeward bound veterans. Lost in the media love affair is the fact that the Vandoos were directly responsible for three of the biggest black eyes the Canadian military received during the scandal-plagued 1990s. First there was the release of a notorious hazing video depicting Vandoo paratroopers engaged in public acts of drunkenness, nudity, defecation, feces-ingestion and simulated sodomy, all of which directly led to the 1995 disbandment of the entire Canadian Airborne Regiment. And in 1996 it was revealed that a large number of Vandoos had discredited themselves while guarding a mental hospital in Bakovici, Bosnia. Among the allegations was that an officer had sex with a female patient while his drunken troops shouted encouragement. Despite internal police reports and evidence, the military brass had kept the lid on this scandal for three years. Subsequent investigations implicated nearly three dozen Vandoos in the misconduct, but due to the expired statute of limitations, no charges were laid and names of the accused were not released. The entire army was tarnished by the scandal. Later that same year, Lt.-Gen. Armand Roy, the senior serving Vandoo, was dismissed from his post as the deputy chief of defence staff. Publicly fired from the army, Roy was ordered to repay more than $86,000 that he had allegedly misappropriated. The rank and file were shell-shocked to learn that the Judge Advocate General would not press charges against the disgraced general, the most senior official in Canada ever dismissed for theft. The double standard of justice led to a collapse of faith in the military hierarchy and a top-to-bottom review of the military justice system. That being stated, I have no doubt that the current rotation of Vandoos into Afghanistan is eager to erase the recent past and will set out to earn the copious praise that has been heaped upon them. What we should learn from our own linguistic diversity is that despite the fact we are an officially (but not in any practical sense) bilingual army, in order to maximize efficiency at the operational level we recognize the need to have segregated combat units. As we shift the focus to training the Afghan National Army, perhaps the architects of this new force should look to the Canadian example. Rather than simply herding together Afghan recruits into one single battalion, why not separate them into sub-units that allow them to train and fight with members of their own language and ethnicity? For the record, there are 10 major ethnic factions in Afghanistan - Pashtu, Persian, Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen, Hazara, Baluch, Waziri, Kirgiz and Arab - and their past history of bitter inter-sectarian violence runs far deeper than our little Canadian inter-regimental rivalries. The regimental rivalry continues........

could not agree more........ scum!!

You need to have the capabilities because countries, even close allies have their own priorities. If an American solider is seriously wounded, and 30 miles away a Canadian soldier is also seriously wounded and there is only 1 MEDEVAC helo, and it is a US Army helo, who will they EVAC first?? They take care of their own. You need to have combat capabilities to cover the full spectrum of ops. Soverginty also becomes and issue, American jets patrolling Canadian skies, we need our own fighter force. You also need to be abvle to take turns in each area, Canadian SOF units rotate out and UK units take over, then the US etc..... You have to play the political BS game, that's what it is BS!! Canadians do not like to spend $$ on an effective military because they have been brainwashed to believe that it will cost them their 3rd world healthcare system. They are lead to believe that if we buy 150 new fighter planes, Gramma will be kick out of the hospital to die in the gutter. This country is driven by a minority left wing agenda, because the rest of us have to work....

Troops about 2000, tactical aircraft, none, we have 80 , no where near enough, attack helos, none, Canadians don't think the military should have bullets after all we are Peace Keepers. Transport helos, none, we have none, even Botswana has some... Intel, linited, sealift none, casualtiesw, many thanks to the afore mentioned deficencies ... Canada would be a Banana Republic if we only had Bananas.....

So if brother & sister consent, and can produce offspring, it is OK. If Gramma & grandson consent, and they have a baby, it is OK. Not in my world... How do you know the dog doesn't consent!! Marriage has been between man & woman for thousands of years, in most societies and religions, there is no need at all to change it now.

So what about the brother & sisteer that want to get married, or the grandmother and grandson, or man that wants to marry his dog. Where does it stop?? It doesn't. You cannot have order and scocial norms with this endless "progressive" BS. Anything goes, society looses....