“RCAF”

For those who closely follow the news about the Canadian Armed Forces in general and the Royal Canadian Air Force in particular, it will come as no shock to learn that they are currently suffering from a crippling shortage of trained personnel.

At a recent defence & security conference in Ottawa, Minister of National Defence Bill Blair admitted that the inability of recruiting to keep pace with retirements from the CAF have left Canada’s military institution in a “death spiral”. Blair offered no plan to correct the course of action, he simply said that the leadership “needs to do better.”

The life cycle of military planes can be estimated from Day 1. So it’s a head-scratcher that the training aircraft for Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) fighter pilots have reached the end of their useful lives, with no replacement on the way. If you’re even remotely familiar with the Canadian Armed Forces, this failure to prepare is exactly what should be expected.