“CAF – Canadian Armed Forces”

Canada-Europe defence ties can link ‘club of countries, with shitty armies and shitty governments’ says German envoy

If Canada decides to buy submarines from Germany, it would mean tightening ties with a “club of countries” in Europe as it looks to meet NATO defence spending goals and face an uncertain world, Germany’s ambassador says.

Matthias Lüttenberg, Germany’s ambassador to Canada, sat down with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson in an interview airing on Sunday and emphasized the value of working more closely together.

“It’s up to the Canadian government to decide which direction they want to go,” said Lüttenberg.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, Europe

Canada’s costly NATO reminder: membership doesn’t come cheap

Membership has its privileges, as the old American Express advertisement promised. But it also has steep costs.

Canada faced a potential multibillion reminder of this as defence ministers gathered Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

They had come to set the stage for annual leaders’ summit in The Hague later this month where talk of defence spending will dominate the agenda.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

The wokest military on earth

One of the stated goals of the Carney government is to rejigger Canada’s various military relationships. After decades of reflexively going along with the United States on defence issues, the Liberals are signalling a plan to make nice with Europe.

This week’s speech from the throne stated that Canada will be joining “ReArm Europe,” a massive planned buildup of the continent’s military strength, largely as a check against Russia.

But as Canada strikes out to make new friends, these new allies may encounter a Canadian military that is slightly different than what they remember. Even for Western militaries that have embraced nostrums of equity and inclusion, in many ways Canada has gone further than all of them.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

‘Secret’ memo reveals how Canada’s refusal to join missile system in 2005 hurt our reputation

Canada’s armed forces are ready for emergency pronoun deployment under battlefield conditions.

OTTAWA — A “secret” memo from the Department of National Defence last year said Canada’s 2005 decision not to join the U.S. ballistic missile defence system harmed the country’s reputation as a security partner and could make it harder to participate in the AUKUS military collaboration between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The memo also raised Canada’s long-standing failure to meet its defence spending commitments with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as “the elephant in the room” that has raised doubts about whether Canada is willing to pull its weight for international security.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, NATO, USA, WTF?

Frankie Champers: We need to build new ways to avoid military spending

Canada rethinks military spending as Trump turns up the pressure

OTTAWA — Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is signaling a bold shift in Canadian defense spending — one where the military is a national priority.

“We need to rebuild our armed forces. We need to rebuild infrastructure. We need to build new defense systems, but we need to do that where we support Canadian industry, Canadian workers and Canadian autonomy,” Champagne told POLITICO in a wide-ranging interview in his 18th-floor corner office.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Golden Dome? ReArm Europe? Canada negotiating military relationships amid trade war, sovereignty concerns

“You can only control what you can control.”

Those were the words from newly minted Defence Minister David McGuinty Wednesday morning on his way into a cabinet meeting after a reporter asked him to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s US$61 billion price tag to join the Golden Dome.

“What we can control here now is decisions around strengthening our sovereignty and our security,” he said.

The Golden Dome, a name that plays off Israel’s Iron Dome, is a project Trump told the Pentagon to pursue. It would employ ground- and space-based weapons to destroy missiles mid-flight.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, USA

Canada’s new military investment urgency will rival WWII, minister vows

The federal government will take “immediate and decisive action” to rebuild Canada’s military, Defence Minister David McGuinty told an audience of military contractors at a trade show in Ottawa Wednesday morning.

He described the government’s sense of urgency by citing the speed at which Canada built up its navy at the start of the Second World War. McGuinty also warned that countries around the world are adjusting quickly to a changing global threat environment.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Carney says Canada is looking to join major European military buildup by July 1

Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled he hopes Canada will be able to sign on to a major European defence rearmament plan by July 1, a step toward reducing the country’s dependency on the United States for weapons and munitions.

He made the remarks on CBC’s Power & Politics following the speech from the throne, which committed his government to joining ReArm Europe.

The speech did not set out a timeline, but Carney said he wants to move aggressively.

So which Carney adjacent entities will be benefiting financially from this diversification policy?

Meanwhile … Trump is trolling

Donald Trump says Golden Dome would cost Canada $61 billion US

U.S. President Donald Trump has put a price tag on Canada joining his proposed Golden Dome missile defence system — and renewed his annexation threat in the process.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday that it will cost Canada $61 billion US to join the Golden Dome “if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation,” but will cost nothing “if they become our cherished 51st State.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Canada is doing everything wrong with defence procurement

For most of history, a country’s strength has depended not just on fielding the best military equipment but on its capacity to afford it. Balancing capability with cost has always been the practical constraint shaping military readiness. The appeal of equipping soldiers with the most advanced drones, radar and software is understandable – what government wouldn’t want to give its troops every possible advantage?

But in Canada’s case, this logic often backfires. The pursuit of “best-in-class” foreign systems – often encouraged by the appeal of interoperability, proven performance, aligned requirements and ease of integration – can come at the expense of building domestic capacity, ultimately undermining both sovereignty and long-term effectiveness.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces"

Canadian military’s new recruitment tool faces rollout problems

The Canadian military has launched a new online recruitment portal to try to modernize the application process and address a personnel crisis.

But technical glitches emerged during the launch, prompting concerns that frustrated applicants may be discouraged from joining at a time when the ranks are short more than 14,000 troops and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Canadian sovereignty.

… One applicant who spoke to Global News described the portal as “very slow and not remotely state of the art.” He asked not to be identified because of concerns it could jeopardize his application, and says it took dozens of attempts over multiple days to set up a profile.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces"

Leaked Canadian military report shows many new recruits are quickly leaving

The Canadian military insists it’s getting a handle on its recruiting crisis, but a new leaked internal report obtained by CBC News suggests many of those who come through the door quickly leave in frustration over the inability to get trained and into the job they want.

In addition, the effort to retain experienced soldiers, sailors and aircrew was dealt an important blow recently when a Department of National Defence office — set up to find ways to keep people — was defunded.

The struggle to recruit new members to both the regular and the reserve force has been a major preoccupation as the Forces face a shortage of up to 14,000 qualified personnel.

US recruiting has rebounded under Trump. Can’t imagine why!

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada

Canada’s military plans to be in the Arctic ‘on a near permanent basis,’ says commander

ICE Station Trudeau

Canada intends to expand its military training regime in the Arctic, deploying a variety of forces in the region for up to 10 months a year, starting this year, the military’s operations commander says.

Lt.-Gen. Steve Boivin says the military’s signature Far North exercise — Operation Nanook — will see additional elements created, resulting in a greater, consistent presence in a region that is increasingly the focus of geopolitical rivalry.

The plan, says one defence expert, is an unprecedented opportunity for the Liberal government to not only demonstrate Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, but to rally NATO allies behind the country.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada

Canada’s boutique military: ‘Should we not be able to defend ourselves?’

The CAF is in the forefront of recruiting weirdos.

The Alaskan Air Identification Zone extends 150 miles from U.S. territorial airspace and into Canada’s airspace in the North. It begins where sovereign airspace ends but is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of security.

On two consecutive days in February, two Russian Tupolev bombers accompanied by two Sukhoi Su-35 fighters flew into the zone. On both days, Feb. 18 and Feb. 19, they were intercepted by F-35 fighters, a Boeing E-3 Sentry early warning and control aircraft, and a KC-135 Stratotanker for aerial refuelling. All American aircraft.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces"

It’s time for Canada to get serious about defence spending

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first major test on the world stage came this week, when he met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington. While the discussions covered a range of bilateral issues—from trade to energy cooperation—defence spending was also a focal point.

The United States has long pressed Canada to increase its military investment. The meeting brought renewed scrutiny of Ottawa’s commitment to its NATO obligations, with President Trump saying that he was pleased that Canada was beginning to spend more on defence.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Remarkable scenes of gratitude greet Canadian war veterans in the Netherlands

Apeldoorne Netherlands Liberation Day

As a former Spitfire pilot who flew 60 missions over Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War, George Brewster is not one to be rattled easily.

But he says experiencing the warmth and gratitude of the Dutch people who have come out to cheer him and other Canadian Second World War veterans this weekend has left him speechless.

Well done.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", Canada, Netherlands, WW II, WW II History