Q&A | Canada’s ‘ambitious’ defence strategy and the ‘tough slog’ ahead, with Mark Norman
The Defence Industrial Strategy outlines a clear ‘ambition and intent,’ as well as efforts to ‘wean ourselves off of dependencies,’ particularly on the United States, says the former vice-chief of the defence staff.
The road ahead on foreign interference
Parties should move to implement watertight nomination and leadership processes to shut out hostile actors trying to influence Canadian politics.
New defence strategy unveils big numbers and contradictions
The Canadian military is in desperate need of all sorts of modern weapon systems, few of which are made in Canada.
Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy needs an Indo-Pacific gear
Diversification cannot simply mean shifting from overdependence on the U.S. to deeper concentration in Europe.
Having a defence industrial strategy is good, but we’ll also need to know what to do with it
Canada should leverage its geographic advantage—far from Europe’s front lines—along with its close relationship with Ukraine and its willingness to invest heavily to develop advanced drone and anti-drone capabilities that can be shared with and sold to allies.
Feds’ new defence industrial strategy is powerful, but it faces serious challenges before it can succeed
The new strategy is based on a recognition that past processes on defence procurement have been a failure—this time has to be different. Government itself has to become a better and smarter customer.
Four years on: Canada, Ukraine, and the end of familiar assumptions
The question is no longer whether we support Ukraine or not, but how we do so in a world where old assumptions no longer hold.
New strategy outlines ‘ambitious’ defence readiness objective months after downgrading air fleet target
National Defence’s most recent departmental plans reduced the readiness target for the air fleet to 70 per cent, down from 85 per cent. The new Defence Industrial Strategy has reversed that decrease just eight months later.
NATO 1.0 is dead. Long live NATO 2.0
The existing NATO is an ideal template for a successor alliance that includes most or all of the existing members except the United States.
A defence reality check for the Canadian Armed Forces
In having more mixed firepower capacity, the CAF can conduct more precision strikes, alongside extended barrages needed to sustain attritional combat operations over months or even years.
