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From: acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Canada's defence : Doesn't anyone care?
Message-ID: <1226@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 02:39:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1226
Posted: Tue Aug 20 02:39:54 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Aug-85 23:27:30 EDT
References: <833@utcs.UUCP> <835@utcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton)
Distribution: can
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 69
Summary: 

In article <835@utcs.UUCP> shindman@utcs.UUCP (Paul Shindman) writes:
>
>This is actually an interesting issue, and somewhat timely (well, a
>little late is close enuff) with respect to the CF-18 fighter aircraft.
>
>If you know anybody in the militia, you know how bad their equipment
>is (ofter circa Korean War vintage). 

This point is applicable to all three branches of our armed forces and is 
not limited to the militia. Prior to acquiring the CF-18s and Auroras 
the operational squadrons were flying aircraft that were often older 
than the pilots. Needless to say the weapons and targetting systems on these
aircraft wouldn't be very potent in a combat situation. Similar problems
hold true for Canada's Navy which spends most of its time in port and 
under repair. 

The acquisition of these new aircraft has hardly turned our air force into
a lean mean fighting machine. We purchased 18 Auroras (P-3 Orions) and
based four of them on the west coast. These planes are responsible for
patrolling all the arctic and Canada's west coast. That is hardly a small
piece of real estate and not the type of thing that can be done properly
with four planes. If the U.S. hadn't told us the Polar Sea was going through
the Northwest Passage I doubt if our air force would have discovered it. Who
wants to be in the arctic in the summer time when you can be salmon fishing 
around Comox instead?

As for interceptor squadrons, the nearest one is just outside Seattle. With
the arrival of the CF-18s the fighter squadron at Comox was moved to Cold Lake
Alberta. The original plans (1984) called for a contingent of four planes to
be rotated through Comox to provide some method for intercepting and
identifying aircraft that penetrated our air space.  After the tories again
lost the Comox-Powell River riding to the NDP this plan was scrapped. I guess
if the locals weren't smart enough to recognize who would be filling the 
political feeding trough after the last election then they deserve what they 
got. 

The Navy out here is of course a joke. They probably couldn't pull
over and board a Russian fishing trawler if their lives depended on it. 
I don't want to demean the men in our Navy but just to point out that the
equipment they have to do their job with is totally inadequate. If anything
good comes out of the Polar Sea voyage it might be that Canada is a maritime
nation and has more than just the Atlantic to worry about.

> The other point this gent made
>was that Canada's NATO committment could have been made with ground
>air-defences, not with aircraft. Apparently the CAF has next to nothing
>in the way of modern anti-aircraft weaponry.
>

Such an approach may be fine for a land locked nation in Europe but it
hardly suits a country like Canada. We are sparsely populated and have
to assert our sovereignty over vast regions of land and this can be done
more effectively by air than on the ground. Living on the inadequately
defended west coast I rate the protection of Canada higher on my list of
priorities than meeting our meager commitments to NATO. I am sure our
allies would be just as happy if we really beefed up our defences in Canada
and reneged a bit on our NATO duties for a while instead of making a token
gesture to NATO.  Part of our NATO duties call for us to send troops to
Norway in a crisis so by being better prepared at home we would be more
able to meet this promise.

It is about time we started to defend ourselves  instead of expecting 
some other countries to do it for us. I don't think we can trust other nations
to respect our territorial claims if we don't have a big stick to wail on
them with if they don't believe us. To this end we need to acquire a lot 
more CF-18s, fighting ships and patrol aircraft in addition to providing 
our army with new equipment.

  Donald Acton