The military fix not everyone wants to hear

OTTAWA—There has been an almost steady drumbeat of bad news stories revealing the numerous shortcomings and challenges facing the Canadian Armed Forces. The combined recruiting and retention crisis over the past decade has resulted in a crippling shortage of personnel. In some key trades—particularly in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and Air Force—the trade vacancy rate tops 40 per cent. Overall, the combined Regular and Reserve forces are facing a 17 per cent shortfall of an authorized personnel strength of 115,000. This situation has been acknowledged by the senior brass who have advised the Canadian public that, like it or not, they will simply not be able to achieve their operational requirements through the foreseeable future. To face this crisis, the Canadian military has focused its efforts on the obvious. In an attempt to increase recruiting and encourage retention, the CAF lifted all regulations on tattoos, piercings, hairstyles, facial hair, and gender-specific uniform items. The Navy has also created a special one-year Naval Experience Program wherein would-be recruits only have to commit to 12 months of service. The hope is that within that initial period, the excitement and adventure of Navy life would convince these individuals to sign up for a full career. However, the current shortage of qualified personnel means that fewer RCN warships can be put to sea. As a result, the one-year-wonder recruits may find their 12 months to be a boring stretch of doing general duties such as cleaning barracks and mending equipment. But I digress. The approach the CAF leaders should consider is downsizing the military to keep pace with the diminished number of recruits. I know this will sound like heresy to the Colonel Blimps out there, but before you start thumping your tubs, I will remind you that this is nothing new. With advances in technology we have seen a complete evolution of the modern battlefield. We went from close-packed ranks of hundreds of soldiers firing muskets in volleys to a machine gun able to generate more firepower from a single soldier. Close observers of the current conflict in Ukraine will have realized that uninhabited drones are now the masters of the battlefield. They can be used to observe and also to directly destroy enemy weapons and formations. The skill set for piloting or programming such drones does not require the same level of fitness and physical strength as that of conventional combat soldiers. I think that if Canada were to invest in a boatload of cutting-edge fleets of hunter-killer and kamikaze drones, operated by just a handful of talented gamers, this would have more tactical impact on a modern battlefield than three battalions of conventional mechanized infantry. At sea, the war in Ukraine has also exposed the vulnerability of Russia’s surface fleet to the uninhabited, water-borne attack drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is also true that with the advent of technology, crew sizes in conventional warships can be drastically reduced. The French navy currently operates their larger FREMM (European multi-purpose frigate) ships with crews of just 140, while the RCN still puts their Halifax-class frigates out to sea with more than 220 sailors crammed aboard. The RCAF has a crippling shortage of pilots despite a decades-long drastic reduction in the number of combat planes operated by Canada. In terms of fighter aircraft, in the early days of the Cold War, Canada purchased more than 1,100 CF-86 Sabre fighters. To replace them, Canada bought a mixed fleet of 200 CF-104 starfighters and 145 CF-5 fighters. This was, in turn, downsized to a fleet of just 120 CF-18 Hornets in the 1980s. There are currently 86 CF-18s still in service with the RCAF, and the government has signed a contract to replace these with 88 F-35 Joint Strike fighters. The real future of military aviation however, as demonstrated by the war in Ukraine, is not dog-fighting Top Gun jet jocks: it is unmanned drones programmed by high-tech engineers. Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times

The military fix not everyone wants to hear

The approach Canadian Armed Forces leaders should consider is downsizing the military to keep pace with the diminished number of recruits.

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The military fix not everyone wants to hear

The approach Canadian Armed Forces leaders should consider is downsizing the military to keep pace with the diminished number of recruits.

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