[War] Canada: Neglected no More

[Dylan de Valk]

[OoC: I borrowed equipment stats from the September 2007 post called 'The
Proposal' as I liked the way you did it and I was going to do it anyways.
Thanks for the template.  Hope you don't mind.]



'Neglected no More'
March.12th/2014
Prime Minister James McColl
Canada

------------------

McColl was surprised at how fast Girard and Ansdale got back to him on the
military 'wish list' he had set them.  The list was huge understandably, but
it was in keeping with Canada's doctrines.  The PM had called for a meeting
of the most important cabinet members and general staff for March. 12th.

Finance Minister van der Werden was quite successful in wracking up
necessary funds for the university and military initiatives, earmarking
nearly $15 billion for this year alone.  He had also managed to increase the
surplus by cutting some unnecessary government initiatives.

Among the people attending the meeting were the Finance Minister, Defense
Minister John Ansdale, Foreign Affairs Minister Julia Bachman, Industry
Minister Jacques le Mieux, and Public Works Minister Perrin Gassou.  The top
military brass were all present, including Jean Pierre Girard, the Chief of
Defence Staff and various other Admirals and Generals.

The PMO had developed a healthy and respectful working relationship with the
various arms of the government over the last few months, and that included
the Defence Staff.  McColl had wanted to be sure that his image as a
slightly centre-left politician was not tarnished by people who stereotyped
lefties as anti-military.  Already, critics were working on the government,
but they had so far managed to avoid the worst of it.

McColl had arrived 15 minutes early, and greeted everyone as they came
through the doors.  The guards saluted everyone as they came through, and
then they all sat at a round table in the room.  The meeting room was in the
Centre Block on Parliament Hill, so they were right at the heart of
government.  The people assembled in this room represented the leadership of
the nation.

McColl began with general greetings and news from around the world, and then
the real work began.  He handed the show over to the Chief of the Defence
Staff, Girard.  Lieutenant General Jean-Pierre Girard had made the army his
career.  At age 72, he sat on the pinnacle of the armed forces, and was
still going strong.  A driven man, he had fought in Korea, peacekept [as an
officer] in Yugoslavia and Lebanon, and had, for the last 3 years, served as
CoDS.

He began with an update of the current state of military expenditures.
"Well gents, I'm sorry to say I wish I could have a little more pride in our
armed forces.  The state of the military is not so great as an
understatement.  To start with, we only spend 1.6% of our GDP on defence, so
in that regard, we have been behind all our allies for nearly three
decades.  The United States spends in the 4% category, while the Europeans
and Australians are at the 2% mark.  I suggest we increase our spending to a
minimum of 2%, which will amount to about $30 billion per year, up from $22
billion-ish.  This should give us a good boost in our ability to defend the
nation if it comes under attack as well as giving us a little more power to
project overseas to peacekeeping and other duties."

At that point the PM spoke up, "Sorry to interrupt, Eric, do we have enough
this year and for the coming years to incorporate that increase in the
budget?"

"That we do, sir.  In fact, if we needed to, theres room in the budget for
another $5 billion on top of that.  A warning though, that cuts the surplus
right down to the hundreds of millions."

"Alright, Eric, I want you to give the military a $12billion increase per
year from now on, so that puts us at what? $34 billion now.  That seems to
be a better number, that way, you can keep a healthy surplus of a couple
billion.  You may continue General."

"Thank you sir.  Now that we have that sorted out, I'd like to move on the
matter of equipment procurement.  General Voyeux has details on the air
force, if you please General."

Voyeux was a long-time air force man.  As head of Air Command, he probably
knew it better than anyone else here.  "Thank you general.  The air force
has two overarching problems at this point.  Firstly, our aircraft are
ancient.  The CF-18's are nearing the end of their operational lifespans in
the next few years.  I suggest we phase them out and start replacing them
with F-35's.  The F-35 is a multipurpose fighter aircraft developed in the
last 10 years by a coalition of western nations, us included, in the Joint
Strike Fighter program.  It has comparable performance to the new Sukhoi's,
Eurofighter Typhoon, and Dassault Rafale.  We actually only have 60 combat
operational aircraft, and that number will decrease as time goes on.  The
rest are either for training or useless.
We need ideally 200 aircraft to completely cover our entire airspace."

"That's not to mention of course our transport aircraft, which are actually
5 years past the end of their service lifetimes.  We MUST acquire more of
them.  The ability to transport troops, supplies, and equipment is crucial
to any military operation, whether inside Canada or overseas.  For too many
years, we have relied on the Americans for transport, I believe it's time we
took matters into our own hands, which will needless to say make things
easier for us."  He paused.  Everyone seemed to digest this quietly.

"I agree completely," that was Minister Ansdale, "I'm sure it's not only the
Americans who are tired of ferrying us around.  Our own troops and logistics
are constantly complaining that they have to work around the yanks'
schedules."

"That is, of course, what happens when you neglect heavy lifting capacity
for as long as we have." said Voyeux.  "If I may continue?" Nods around the
table. "Very well.  Airbus has the A400 strategic lift aircraft, which will
supplement the four C-17 Globemasters we currently operate quite nicely.  It
is a newer aircraft, and has a more capable performance.  That being said,
they are slightly more expensive.  The air force has had its eye on the A400
since it came out in 2009, and we would need 15 to cover all our needs."
Another pause.  When no one spoke up, he continued.

"Mobility is another crucial point for the 'forces.  I propose we acquire
heavy and medium transport helicopters for battlefield and logistics
transport.  The Americans are now using the latest design of their famous
'Black Hawk' helicopter, which is the UH-60M utility helicopter.  The
Europeans are now using the NH90-TTH heavy lift; both of these designs in
the right quantities will give the army the lifting capacity it needs.  The
Defence Staff proposes that we acquire 150 UH60's and 25 NH-90's.  These
will replace the Griffons we are currently using, which is a design that
first went into production in 1981.  All the aircraft will give us equipment
lasting for a good 20-25 years.  The other major problem we have is a lack
of service personnel.  No one really wants to go into the air force unless
you're going to be a pilot.  We need more people.  Thank you gentlemen."
Voyeux sat as everyone looked thoughtful, the politicians among them
wondering how much this would cost, and the military types that they
couldn't believe this was finally happening.

"Thank you, Pierre."  That was PM.  "I agree as I'm sure everybody else does
that the Air Force, and not only them but the whole service, has been
neglected for the last 25 years.  This is a great thing that we're sitting
down and doing something about the problems the CAF face.  However, please
realize that these changes will take up to several years to materialize.
Girard, on the army, if you please?"

Girard stood up and went to the projected screen at the front of the room,
which changed from the air force presentation to that of the army.  "The
situation of the army is not so bad as that of the air force.  The time the
conservatives spent in office did not completely go to waste.  The current
Regular Force stands at 85,000 active duty troops and the Army Reserve is at
40,000.  First off: I propose we increase our troops levels to 100,000 Reg
Force troops and leave the Reserves where they're at.  That could be
partially accomplished from converting Reserve units into Reg Force,
although that would only account for 5,000 of the 15,000.  We could then
recruit more for the reserves, as they are a popular side-job for young
people, that shouldn't be too hard."

"Secondly, our small arms are getting out of date, with the C7 rifle the
most pressing.  It is based off the M16A2, and entered production back in
1982.  We need a more modern rifle.  I recommend we start developing our own
new rifle, compatible with NATO standards of course and that we give the
contract out to domestic defense manufacturers.  We should start from
scratch, so that we have a completely unique design, which we could then
market out to other countries."

"For vehicles, our C2 Leopard Main Battle Tanks are based off the Leopard
1A5, which were developed, again, in the 1980's.  The French have an
excellent design called the GIAT Leclerc MBT.   It has been in production
since 1991.  It has a larger calibre main cannon and an auto-loading system,
which we like.  It compares quite well to our current Leopard 2's and other
modern armour.  We'd be looking at 250 to supplement our current Leopard
2's, of which we have 100.  That would give us a very respectable armoured
force, and we'd be ordering directly from the manufacturer, not second hand,
so they will last us for quite a long time.  Modern armour design has not
changed much since the 1990's, so the apparent age of the design should not
be a problem.  The Leclerc is part of a newer generation of armour."  Girard
took a drink from his glass of water.  Julia Bachman took the opportunity to
share a joke, and everyone laughed.

He continued on gamely, "Regarding our APC's and secondary vehicles.  The
LAV-III's we have right now are good vehicles, but again, we lost so many in
Afghanistan, the 550 or so we currently have just aren't enough.  We need to
get back to pre-Afghanistan levels, which means ordering new ones.  Seeing
as they entered service in 1999, we wont be needing to replace them for a
long time, although perhaps initiatives to update and create variants might
be started.  General Motors still has the capacity to build more, so I
recommend we buy another 200.  The Germans and Dutch have developed a new
APC called the Boxer MRAV, or multi-role armoured vehicle.  Those can
replace our old M113's and AVGP's.  As for our support vehicles, they too
need replacing.  Many of them are 40 or 50 years old, and obviously are long
obsolete."

At that point, the meeting was interrupted for a washroom and
stretch-the-legs break.  Five minutes later, they were all back at the
table, ready and focussed.

Admiral Matthew Charpentier took over from the CoDS for the Navy briefing.
"Alright everyone, onto the Navy." He grinned, and they all smiled knowing
smiles.  "The Navy has three overwhelming problems confronting it.  A: A
lack of personnel, B: An AGED fleet, and C: Major funding shortfalls.  I'll
go through each point starting with A of course.  Many of our ships leave
port with only a 4/5 complement.  That is needless to say a danger both to
them and the ships.  A lack of properly trained crew means they are
overworked, and means more things can go wrong.  We need enough crew to
operate our vessels without multi-tasking.  I've seen this first hand."

Charpentier paused, and took a quick sip of water.  "B.  I'm not sure if it
ever occurred to anyone in the old government, but our ships are *OLD*.  The
Protecteur class of supply ship entered service in 1969!"  He sounded
incredulous that politicians had let this go unnoticed.  "Our Iroquois Class
destroyers entered service in 1972, and the Victoria Class subs that we
bought off the Brits were built in the 1980's.  The most modern ships we
have are the Orca Class training vessels for our cadets and new recruits,
being 2006.  Our Halifax Class frigates are excellent ships no doubt, but
they are nearing 20 years of age as well, coming into service from 1992 to
1996."

"So what exactly are you getting at, Admiral?"  That was Foreign Affairs
Minister Julia Bachman, who was beginning to wonder why she had been invited
to this meeting.

"What I'm getting at, Minister," and he put a look into his eye as he said
it, "is that we should be acquiring new ships.  Maritime Command has come up
with plans, with the cooperation of the Public Works and Industry
ministries, to jump-start our faltering national ship-building business with
naval construction and acquisitions.  We'd like to replace the Protecteur
Class as soon as possible, with four new ships, which we call the 'Saguenay
Class' for preliminary purposes.  One of them ideally would be winter
ice-capable for use in the Arctic."

That got a set of raised eyebrows from Foreign Affairs Minister Bachman, but
nothing more.  Charpentier continued without noticing.  "To replace the
three Iroquois destroyers, we are proposing a revisionary 'Tribal II Class'
as tribute to those who sacrificed for the country in the Second World War.
This would be a 6 ship class, of which 2 would again be winter-ice capable
for Arctic uses.  As for our frigates, we would like to acquire 4 more,
winter-ice capable of course for as you might guess, use in the Arctic.  We
do have ideas for a cruiser type vessel, but nothing concrete at this time."

That again got raised eyebrows from Bachman, and also from Eric van der
Werden, who hadn't known anything about this before-hand.

"Rest assured," Charpentier had picked up on van der Werden and Bachman that
time, "these are longer term plans.  If we do at all go for cruisers, it
won't be for some time to come."  He did have a wishful look in his eyes
when he said that.  "Talking about funding.  Over the last few years,
funding has been either siphoned off to other projects or maintenance
duties.  That means that ships are leaving port less and less often.  That
also means our crews are getting less sea time, and that has led to an
erosion of our recruiting efforts, as well as crew and team building
experience.  Hopefully with the new budget, we can rectify these problems.
Thank you for listening ladies and gents."  The admiral sat.

Eric van der Werden spoke at that moment with a strained voice.  "So, how
the hell am I expected to pay for all this?  Hmmm?  It will cost billions.
The largest defense acquisitions made at one time probably ever in Canadian
history.  Not to mention the pubic will freak.  This is appalling."

Industry Minister Jacques le Mieux just smiled grimly and said in his heavy
Quebecois accent, "Well Eric, you're going to have to do whatever you can.
Cut any unnecessary programs, like advertisements and such.  Start phasing
out positions in the bureaucracy that will become no longer needed fairly
and in timely fashion.   My department is willing work with Finance to
initiate industrial policies.  I know we campaigned on attracting some heavy
industry back to Canada, and that will undoubtedly stimulate the economy.
My best advice would be to stagger the payments over the next few years so
its in manageable chunks."  le Mieux had been the opposition finance critic
a few years back, as well as a professor of economics at Concordia
University in Montreal.  Van der Werden was new to the post after a cabinet
shake-up after the election.

"What are the costs of this modernization initiative going to be?  We also
need to come up with a name for it so we can refer to it.  Undoubtedly the
Americans among others will be wondering what the hell happened to make us
do something like this, so I'm going to have to do some explaining."  There
were the raised eyebrows of Foreign Affairs Minister Bachman again.

Admiral Charpentier laughed darkly.

Girard garnered the attention at that point.  He said, "I got my staff to
run some cost analyses," Van der Werden snorted derisively.  "We've come to
a consensus on the cost and a name for the project: The CAF Modernization
Initiative. Here's the numbers."  His staff passed out a dossier several
pages thick to each person at the table.

The numbers were:

Army-

250 Leclerc MBT's: $1.075 billion.
200 LAV-III's: $200 million
500 Boxer MRAV: $2 billion
Development of new standard rifle: $500 million
Replacement of support vehicles: $500 million

Navy-

4 'Saguenay' Class Supply ships: $2 billion
4 new ice-capable frigates: $800 million
6 'Tribal II Class' destroyers: $5billion
3 Virginia Class nuclear attack submarines: $6 billion

Air Force:

200 F-35 A's and B's: $8 billion
25 NH-90's: $475 million
150 UH-60M's: $750 million
15 Airbus A400's: $2billion

Army Cost: $4.275 billion
Air Force Cost: $11.225 billion
Naval Cost: $13.8 billion

Total Cost: $29.3 billion

"Tabernac!  Is it just me, or am I seeing 'Virginia Class nuclear attack
sub' on this sheet?  What the frick?!?!"  That was Public Works Minister
Perrin Gassou.

At that point, the attention went back to McColl, who was sitting quietly
with his head bowed and fingers pressed to his forehead.  Everyone knew what
that meant.  After a few moments he felt their eyes and looked up.  Smiling
weakly as he rose, McColl then walked to the front of the room.

"My friends, as we have all just seen, our military forces are in
all-together desperate straights.  Thanks to 35 years of declining or static
funding, not even keeping up to inflation, it has most unfortunately fallen
to us to fix all these problems."

"Faced with the rise of China, recent events in the Far East," which of
course was referring to North Korea, "and increased Russian activity in the
Arctic, we are given the options of either rebuilding our armed forces or be
increasingly marginalized in the world at large.  We can expect continued
violations of our Arctic waters by Russian and American nuclear submarines,
a further loss of face with the Americans and other militarily powerful
countries, and a loss of influence in international affairs if we fail in
this regard."

"Of course, the Canadian military also faces a loss of face with our own
citizens as well.  The group we have in this room are the most influential
people today in Canada.  Canadians have, in the last few years, become less
afraid of harnessing nuclear than they have in the past.  I have talked this
over with MARCOM, and they agree with me that it is time Canada acquired
both nuclear submarines and began a project in cooperation with Sweden in
stealth destroyer technology."

Julia Bachman's mouth dropped, and the rest of the room went very still.
Everyone stared at the Prime Minister.  They could not believe what they had
just heard, especially coming from someone like James, who was anti-nuclear
proliferation.

"I know, I know.  This is sounding ridiculous to you all.  I'm also far from
happy myself."  He smiled disarmingly.  "But, and the head of CSIS concurs,
it is time that we, accept our destiny as a part of the Western world, with
defense obligations to the free world.  But you also need take no further a
look than at what nuclear submarines can do.  Because the navy has
experience with the Victoria Class we bought from the UK, we can more easily
integrate that into our Arctic sovereignty program.  The American Virginia
Class can stay underwater for months at a time, and is one of the most
advanced of its type.  They would primarily be used for the Arctic and would
not leave Canadian waters, at least for the first few years."

McColl paused for a second to sip some water, as his voice was getting
raspy.  "Of course, we would most certainly NOT be equipping them with
nuclear missiles.  That would be against everything we stand for.  Instead,
we would be using them for close in shore insertions, tracking within
territorial waters, and deterrent with conventional cruise missiles.  As for
the stealth destroyer program, this is early days yet.  Nothing is set in
stone.  I wanted to throw the idea out into the open for our minds to churn
over.  I haven't even talked to Sweden yet."

"There is one other thing I'd like to mention.  I want Public Works,
Industry, and the Navy to cooperate on placing a hydrophone and underwater
sensor system in our Arctic waters.  I think its time we showed the world
Canada is serious about our Arctic territory.  They need to stop trespassing
and go through us if they need to pass through."

"I never thought I would personally have to deal with a situation like
this.  Our left wing voters will not be happy, and a reaction from the
public is obviously to be expected.  I want our people out there, mixing
with the population, answering their questions, giving truthful, fair, and
reasonable answers, and being visible.  The last thing we need is to be
secretive.  I want this to be an open process, transparent.  Understood?"

Everyone acknowledged.  "Alright everyone, thanks for coming, and
listening.  This had to be done, regardless of whether we wanted to or not.
Time is up, and every moment we waited would have cost more.  This meeting
is adjourned."

He sighed.

---------------------

Actions:

1: introduce new characters
2: character development
3: ascertain exactly how badly the CAF is doing
4: look at options
5: decide that now is the time to act, authorizing equipment acquisitions
across a broad spectrum and increase the military budget
6: show the world that Canada once again means business
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