… “The Americans and the Brits have sent much more sophisticated pieces of anti-air or anti-armour equipment than we have,” he said. “You could do more damage, more accurately, to more sophisticated pieces of Russian gear if you’ve got the better weapons.”
Mr. Perry said Canada would also rank better among its NATO allies if it spent the money it has budgeted for defence, but the most recent numbers show the government underspending by about $3-billion. He said that’s in large part because of lengthy delays in buying new fighter jets and the slow progress in Canada’s ship-building program.
Canada’s underspending on defence is a “much bigger” issue now than it was before Russia invaded Ukraine, he said. “We’re seeing the impact of not meeting that” target.
“If you don’t actually spend money on this stuff, and buy things on schedule … then your options when you face a massive crisis, like the one we’re looking at right now in Ukraine, are drastically limited.”
According to NATO’s 2021 numbers, the Dutch spent slightly more on defence than Canada at 1.45 per cent of GDP. Mr. Rutte told reporters on Monday that his government in January decided to “ramp up defence spending by billions of euros” to bring the country close to the target.
Go incognito
