Scudrunners

[url=http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... -the-cheap]http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... -the-cheap[/url]

[quote]Canada’s last, rusty destroyer, the HMCS Athabaskan, retiring next spring, our navy will be without proper long-range naval air-defence or command-and-control capabilities for seven years or more

Canada acquired an entire navy in just six years between 1939 and 1945 ...

It now routinely takes decades to buy equipment that is often ill-suited to a changed strategic or tactical environment by the time it arrives

the first of 28 Sea King replacements finally arrived in 2015, fully [b]32 years after[/b] former prime minister Pierre Trudeau first began trying to replace them

The bureaucratic procedure for purchasing military hardware needs a serious overhaul[/quote]

Why on earth politicians are making the spending decisions is beyond me.

Because they can.

If you read the NDA it will tell you that one of the main reasons we have a military is to promote regional economic development.  In other words the government looks at the military as a way to stimulate regional economies and is quite disinterested in an effective military.  This changed somewhat under the Harper government, (see the speedy acquisition of the C130J, C17, and Chinook).  Sadly, it is back to status quo under the liberals.

The politicians want it both ways.  They want to use
the military as a kind of welfare system for their political
benefit - buying them a few votes - but they also want
to pretend at the same time that they have a real military
that can carry out real tasks, so that the politicians can
strut and preen when they meet with other politicians
at the UN or NATO and get their dicks out and swing
them around.

Really, it's enough to make you sick.

I wonder what would happen if the CDS simply told the
politicians, when they ask for something stupid,

[u]"Fuck off.  Unable.  You get to live with the consequences
of your decisions"[/u]

Of course, any CDS with a spine would instantly get
replaced by fawning yes-man who wants to stick his
tongue up the assholes of the politicians.  That kind
of guy does know how to get promoted, even if he's
useless at anything else.