Illogistics

Laurie Hawn reveals how the gutting of the Canadian military has resulted in an inability to move the manpower and equipment most needed during natural disasters. “We can’t get there from here”;

What the devastated area really needs is our capability to deal with such emergencies with direct medical aid and other life saving requirements, such as potable water. We have that capability standing by in the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), but we just can’t get there from here. The reason for that is that we have lost our capability to deploy such an asset by sea or air in a timely manner.
Our strategic sealift capability resides in three overtasked supply ships, in need of replacement, and smaller-sized and equally overtasked warships, not designed to haul equipment and supplies. With the Navy’s shortage of personnel and existing deployments of ships, timeliness would be a major handicap in addressing the short-term requirements.
The capability of the Air Force to reliably deploy in an emergency situation has gone the way of the serviceability of our C-130 Hercules fleet, that is straight downhill with age and overuse. We will use what Hercs and Airbuses are available to send equipment and supplies, but it will be on a catch-as-catch-can basis. To commit to sending DART would require a carefully planned operation and a large number of serviceable C- 130s to conduct it in a timely manner. The emergency operational planning is a no-brainer for the tremendously capable people we have in uniform. The expectation of a large number of C-130 missions without embarrassing breakdowns is another question. We’ve been there before and that just might be the real reason behind the slow/non-existent response with DART. We don’t want to risk looking like the international weaklings that we have become.

And we had better hope that a similar catastrophe doesn’t strike in Canada – the Armed Forces would be hard pressed to move large volumes of equipment and supplies by road, if the convoy of vintage transport vehicles I passed near Regina on Monday is any indication. They were parked on the shoulder, stalled by a breakdown of one of the trucks.

5 Replies to “Illogistics”

  1. Seriously, if similiar diaster occurs in Canada, there’s always the much despised Amerikkka military on standby to assist their northern neighbor.
    Canada, why bother spend a dime on military when someone else is footing the actual cost?

  2. Bigfire’s not to far off. except for the despised part, around here anyway. There is one thing he forgets though – we would have to form a commission, have a national debate, run it through the senate, have it approved by the supreme court, who would pass it back to parliament because it’s not a constitutional issue, Parliament would have to have another debate about the first debate, Paul Martin would have to see if it would have any affect on canada Steam Ship Lines, and if some how the money could be passed through it so he would get a commission. After all that, there would be no survivors, so the Government would keep the money…… does that about sum it up?

  3. In fact, the Americans did lend us airlift during both the Winnipeg Floods and the Ice Storm. Despite this, the Liberals continue to ignore the screaming need for a national airlift capability. God forbid that a civilian airliner ever crash in the high arctic during a routine flight between northern Europe and the west coast.

  4. And better question – where is the media on this? They’re yacking about the DART team, and accepting the explanations (money better sent in cash than spent on moving team) without challenge.

  5. Of course the only reason it is so expensive to move the team was covered by MGen(ret’d) Lewis MacKenzie in a letter in todays Nat’l Post. Since we have no airlift capability, paid for and ready to go to support our national interests, we have to rent it on the open market, along with everyone else who desperately wants some right now. Supply and Demand made Mr Martin a rich shipping magnate and he is loathe to do the same to the Ukranian Antonov leasing agents.

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