Canadian Forces Meets Recruiting Goals

With few exceptions, Canadian Forces recruiting officers are telling hopeful applicants "Sorry."

The Canadian Forces are accepting just over half the applications they normally would in a year, and unless the applicants have certain specific skills, they are being told to try again later.

Out of 100 categories of jobs or trades in the Forces, only 13 list current openings, including dentists, musicians and social workers.

The military normally recruits around 5,000 people in a year. This year, it expects to recruit only 2,800.

“For this year we have pretty much accomplished our raw numbers,” Lt.-Cmdr. Robert Bedard, a military recruiter, said Wednesday.

By: Shelldrake

Royal Again After Over 40 Years!

Once again, Canada will have a Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force. Sounds a lot better than Maritime Command and Air Command, eh?

A royal name change for Canada's navy and air force will be announced Tuesday, and the army will also be renamed, in a move that taps Canada's military heritage.

The Maritime Command and Air Command will again be known as the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force, while the Land Force Command will be renamed the Canadian Army.

The name changes will be officially announced Tuesday by Defence Minister Peter MacKay, and events marking the transition are scheduled to take place simultaneously across the country.

According to a Canadian Forces document obtained by CBC News on Monday, the move restores the historic names of the three branches of the Forces, and the initiative is being billed as "an important and recognizable part of Canada's military heritage."

"These were the services that fought and emerged victorious from the Second World War and Korea and contributed to the defence of Europe and North America from the early days of the Cold War. These were also the services that paved the way in terms of international peacekeeping missions," says the note, which appears to have been sent to Canadian Forces members.

The branches were renamed in 1968 when they were unified under one central command named the Canadian Armed Forces. That unified command is expected to remain in place when the old names are restored.

By: Shelldrake

Military Disdain?

There's been plenty of discussion of how civilian America tunes out much of the military, even if they go out of their way to avoid leanings of post-Vietnam style disdain. However, is there a growing disdain in the military for their civilian counterparts? The Soldier-Citizen-Sapien blog asks some good questions.

There it is, spelled out pretty clearly. [Brant's note: this refers to a pull-quote in the article, not the image below] Marine Corps values are better than civilian sector values. Just like that, stated as a matter of fact and left unchallenged.
This attitude is not only applied to the everyday American, but extends to the civilian leaders of the military as well. General Stanley McChrystal was recently embarrassed in a Rolling Stone profile that documented some of the disdainful remarks by his staff directed against the Vice President, as well as other presidential appointees assigned to Afghanistan to work with McChrystal. An irreverent and openly hostile attitude at times to civilian control of the military was prevalent among McChrystal and his staff. Publication of that article eventually led to McChrystal’s resignation.
In the first chapter of his popular book Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell riffs negatively on everything from politicians, to the “liberal media,” to the public in general who insist on imposing “intrusive rules of engagement” and other silly things like the protection of human rights. The public should just let him do his job “killing bad guys”, he says. It goes on for pages!
I am beginning to wonder how long this attitude of broad disdain for civilians can persist within the military before the military will be considered completely out of touch.

What do you guys think? Is the military's attitude toward the civilian population becoming a problem?

By: Brant

Kill Some Time with Military Quizzes

The military channel has a bunch of quizzes online, some of which include the occasional "gotcha" question.

h/t Bison

By: Brant

Iranian Anti-ship Missile?

Strategy Page is reporting that Iran claims to have developed their own anti-ship ballistic missile. Is this just the latest in overblown claims by the Iranian military or something more?

Iran announced that it had developed an anti-ship missile, with a range of 300 kilometers. The new missile, called the Khalij Fars, is said to be developed from the earlier Fateh 110. But this is where this announcement gets strange.

The Fateh 110 is a copy of the Chinese DF-11A ballistic missile, which had a range of 400 kilometers. The Fateh 110 is a 8.86 meter (27.5 foot), 3.5 ton rocket with a half ton warhead. Range is about 250 kilometers. The Fateh 110 is a solid fuel missile developed to replace the liquid fueled SCUD ballistic missiles Iran had been using since the 1980s. SCUD was developed from the German World War II era V-2.

What all this implies is that Iran is claiming to have developed a ballistic missile that can hit moving ships at sea. China is also claimed to have developed this technology (the DF-21D). But neither country has demonstrated their anti-ship ballistic missiles actually working. Moreover, Iran regularly announces wondrous new weapons, developed entirely in Iran. Very few of these weapons are ever seen in service.

By: Shelldrake

Most Canadian Forces Personnel Overweight Or Obese

A recent report indicates that many Canadian soldiers have a couch potato physique. I guess that 6am runs are no longer the norm.

Canadian Forces personnel are getting fatter, more sedentary in their work, less physically active and becoming heavier drinkers, according to a new military study.

The Health and Lifestyle Information Survey also found that members are still reluctant to seek out mental health services for fear it will hurt their military careers, despite several new Defence initiatives to reduce the stigma of doing so.

The document, which surveyed about 3,700 full-time Forces members for the 2008-2009 period, found there was a three per cent increase in the number of obese people since the last survey in 2004, even with a renewed push on fitness promotion.

Almost 29 per cent were of normal weight, while 48 per cent were overweight and an alarming 23.5 per cent were deemed obese.

"The study results certainly indicate to us that, like the rest of the Canadian population, we’re not immune to this epidemic of obesity," Col. Colin MacKay, the military’s director of health protection, said Tuesday from Ottawa.

"We’re also, though, identifying that there are a good number of members interested in trying to take steps to improve their health and to take steps to increase their levels of physical activity and improve their nutrition."

The survey, which was recently posted on the National Defence website, doesn’t offer explanations for the numbers but suggests that inadequate physical fitness, poor diets and sedentary jobs are to blame.

By: Shelldrake

Taiwan's Public Missile Test Less Than Successful

A public test in which 6 of 19 Taiwanese missiles failed to hit their targets has raised concerns about the preparedness of Taiwan's military.

If Taiwan's unusually public test-firing of 19 missiles Tuesday was intended as a statement following China's successful trial of a new stealth aircraft, the message came out a bit garbled.

Taiwan's president was on hand as almost a third of the missiles missed their targets, raising questions rather than reassuring the public about the self-ruled island's readiness to defend itself against an attack from the mainland.

President Ma Ying-jeou's attendance at the drills at a base in Taiwan's south was ostensibly to underscore his commitment to an effective Taiwanese deterrent, following criticism that the island's defense has been undermined by his policy of reconciling with the mainland.

[snip...]

The missile tests were the first held in full view of the press for almost a decade. They were meant, Ma said, "to bring more transparency into military affairs and allow the public to view the military's readiness."

But under a cloud-speckled winter sky, six of the missiles failed to hit their targets, including one RIM-7M Sparrow, which cascaded harmlessly into the South China Sea less than 30 seconds after launch. Other missiles tested included Sky Bow IIs - which have a range of 125 miles (200 kilometers) - MIM-23 Hawks and FIM-92 Stingers.

By: Shelldrake

Advanced UAVs On The Horizon

The next generation of military UAVs will be bigger, faster, and boast more firepower. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of manned fighters and bombers?

The massive Global Observer, built by AeroVironment of Monrovia, Calif., is capable of flying for days at a stratosphere-skimming 65,000 feet, out of range of most anti-aircraft missiles. The plane is built to survey 280,000 square miles — an area larger than Afghanistan — at a single glance. That would give the Pentagon an "unblinking eye" over the war zone and offer a cheaper, more effective alternative to spy satellites watching from outer space.

The estimated $30 million robotic aircraft is one of three revolutionary drones being tested in coming weeks at Edwards Air Force Base.

Another is the bat-winged X-47B drone, built by Northrop Grumman, which could carry laser-guided bombs and be launched from an aircraft carrier. The third is Boeing's Phantom Ray drone that could slip behind enemy lines to knock out radar installations, clearing the way for fighters and bombers.

These aircraft would represent a major technological advance over the Predator and Reaper drones that the Obama administration has deployed as a central element of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan. Unlike most of the fleet of more than 7,000 drones, the new remotely piloted planes will have jet engines and the ability to evade enemy radar.

By: Shelldrake

US Military Faces $78B Spending Cut

The US military is facing a $78B reduction in its budget over the next 5 years.

The Pentagon on Thursday announced a series of sharp cuts in defense spending over the next five years that senior leaders say will improve efficiencies but leave reduced numbers of Marines, soldiers and key defense systems.

The cuts will pare the Army and Marine Corps by as many as 47,000 people, reversing a trend since the Sept. 11 attacks of increased budgets and more recruitment. The new cuts also will eliminate defense systems such as the Surface-Launched Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, an armored boat designed to move Marines ashore rapidly.

The new series of spending cuts will reduce the Pentagon's budget by $78 billion over the next five years, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in announcing the reductions at the Pentagon. He also proposed raising the health insurance premiums of military retirees who still receive military health insurance. The premiums have not been raised since 1995.

"This plan represents, in my view, the minimum level of defense spending that is necessary, given the complex and unpredictable array of security challenges the United States faces around the globe — global terrorist networks, rising military powers, nuclear-armed rogue states and much, much more," Mr. Gates said.

Mr. Gates said some money saved through more efficient spending will be reinvested into programs that reflect the military's new emphasis on counterinsurgency instead of preparing for war between nation-states.

The defense secretary also said the cuts he is proposing are part of a review of unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon programs launched last year. The review followed an earlier round of cuts that capped procurement of the F-22 fighter program at 187 jets.

"It is imperative for this department to eliminate wasteful, excessive and unneeded spending, to do everything we can to make every defense dollar count," Mr. Gates said.

By: Shelldrake

Japan May Strengthen Military Relationship With South Korea

China can't be too happy with the prospect of a possible military alliance between Japan and South Korea.

Responding to recent provocations by North Korea, Japan's defense minister soon will visit Seoul with several proposals aimed at strengthening military ties despite South Korea's lingering bitterness over Japan's colonial past, Japanese news media reported Tuesday.

During the trip next week, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa will propose that the two Asian neighbors sign separate agreements to cooperate in supplying each other's armed forces during peacekeeping and other international operations, and to facilitate sharing of sensitive military information, the reports said. They also said he would propose Japan and South Korea increase military contacts by scheduling regular high-level meetings between defense officials.

[snip...]

According to Tuesday's news reports, one of Kitazawa's proposals would be for an agreement allowing forces to cooperate during international operations like peacekeeping and disaster-relief efforts, sharing food, water and fuel, and support services like transportation and medical care.

The news reports said it was unclear if the cooperation with South Korea would extend to military emergencies, like a larger confrontation on the Korean Peninsula. While some Japanese leaders have spoken of raising their nation's profile, Japan so far has said it would limit its military role during such a contingency to supporting the United States, its longtime protector.

Last month, South Korean observers attended joint U.S.-Japan military exercises for the first time. In an interview last month, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara of Japan said he expected the two nations to slowly increase military ties in response to the North.

By: Shelldrake

Japanese Military To Respond To Growing Chinese Presence

The potential threat of China and, to a lesser extent, North Korea have caused a major shift in Japan's defense strategy.

In what would be a sweeping overhaul of its cold war-era defense strategy, Japan is about to release new military guidelines that would reduce its heavy armored and artillery forces pointed north toward Russia in favor of creating more mobile units that could respond to China’s growing presence near its southernmost islands, Japanese newspapers reported Sunday.

The realignment comes as the United States is making new calls for Japan to increase its military role in eastern Asia in response to recent provocations by North Korea as well as China’s more assertive stance in the region.

The new defense strategy, likely to be released this week, will call for greater integration of Japan’s armed forces with the United States military, the reports said. The reports did not give a source, but the fact that major newspapers carried the same information suggested they were based on a background briefing by government officials.

The new guidelines also call for acquiring new submarines and fighter jets, the reports said, and creating ground units that can be moved quickly by air in order to defend the southern islands, including disputed islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China and Taiwan. These disputed islands are known as the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.

Details of the realignment, which was delayed a year by the change of government in September 2009, have been leaking out since large joint military drills this month between Japan and the United States that included the American aircraft carrier George Washington.

By: Shelldrake

South Korea Threatens Norks With Air Strikes

It remains to be seen whether tough talk by the new South Korean defence minister will dissuade the Norks from further acts of aggression.

South Korea's defence minister-designate has promised a tougher response, including air strikes, if North Korea attacks again. Kim Kwan-jin was responding to questions in parliament during his confirmation hearing.

North Korea shelled a Southern island near the two countries' disputed maritime border last week, killing four people and destroying many homes. South Korea's spy chief has said another Northern attack was likely.

Tensions have soared in the region since the North Korean bombardment of Yeonpyeong island on 23 November. Two civilians and two South Korean marines were killed. The shelling came after South Korean forces conducted exercises in the area.

"If North Korea provokes again, we will definitely use aircraft to attack North Korea," Mr Kim said when asked how he would respond to another attack.

He also criticised his predecessor, saying the military should not have ignored intelligence reports suggesting an attack from the North was likely. Kim Tae-young was forced to resign just days after the bombardment of Yeonpyeong island, amid criticism that the military's response was too slow and too weak.

Kim Kwan-jin, a retired general and former head of South Korea's joint chiefs of staff, told his confirmation hearing that he would strengthen the military's rules of engagement, to give more power to the head of the military. He said he would also give more leeway to commanders in the field to determine the level of response to attacks.

Korean broadcaster KBS said last week that more rigorous rules of engagement being proposed included return fire that was two to three times more powerful than any initial Northern fire. The current rules call for a proportionate response with similar weapons and on a similar scale, to avoid escalation.

By: Shelldrake

Norks Recall Expat Workers

Escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula have apparently caused North Korea to recall expat workers from nearby Russia.

A mass exodus of North Korean workers from the Far East of Russia is under way, according to reports coming out of the region. As the two Koreas edged towards the brink of war this week, it appears that the workers in Russia have been called back to aid potential military operations.

Vladnews agency, based in Vladivostok, reported that North Korean workers had left the town of Nakhodka en masse shortly after the escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula earlier this week. "Traders have left the kiosks and markets, workers have abandoned building sites, and North Korean secret service employees working in the region have joined them and left," the agency reported.

Russia's migration service said that there were over 20,000 North Koreans in Russia at the beginning of 2010, of which the vast majority worked in construction. The workers are usually chaperoned by agents from Kim Jong-il's security services and have little contact with the world around them. Defectors have suggested that the labourers work 13-hour days and that most of their pay is sent back to the government in Pyongyang. Hundreds of workers have fled the harsh conditions and live in hiding in Russia, constantly in fear of being deported back to North Korea.

"North Korea's government sends thousands of its citizens to Russia to earn money, most of which is funnelled through government accounts," says Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist who discovered secret North Korean logging camps in the northern Siberian taiga. "Workers are often sent to remote locations for years at a time to work long hours and get as little as three days off per year." Now it appears that some kind of centralised order has been given for the workers to return home.

By: Shelldrake

NATO Troops Killed By Afghan "Policeman"

There has been another incident in which NATO troops have been attacked and killed by a "friendly".

NATO forces say a gunman in an Afghan police uniform has killed six service members in eastern Afghanistan.

NATO said the shooter turned his weapon on NATO troops during a training mission on Monday. He was also killed in the incident.

It was not immediately clear if the shooter was a police officer or someone who had infiltrated the training exercise. Insurgents commonly wear police uniforms to attack Afghan government installations.

NATO said it is investigating the incident along with Afghan authorities. The nationalities of the NATO service members has not been released.

By: Shelldrake

Spotlight On North Korea's Military

CNN has put together a very nice analysis of the Nork's current military capabilities.

North Korea's nuclear capability and ballistic missile technology are its trump card, to make up for its aging conventional forces and as a bargaining chip in negotiations. So that's what receives the bulk of funding and expertise. But despite economic stagnation, technological limitations and international sanctions, its conventional forces can't be discounted, if only because of their size.

[snip...]

Short of a general assault, the North clearly has enough in its arsenal to cause damage and death to its adversary, as the torpedo attack in March and the barrage this week have shown. And it has thousands of artillery pieces close to the Demilitarized Zone, which is just 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Seoul. Recent events show that it is also quite ready to exploit the element of surprise.

There remains the great unanswered question about intentions. There's plenty of what one expert calls "echo chamber analysis." But as former President Carter wrote with a hint of understatement in the Washington Post on Wednesday: "No one can completely understand the motivations of the North Koreans."

By: Shelldrake

Nork Missiles On Launch Pads

The volatile situation on the Korean peninsula seems to have worsened with news that North Korea has readied surface-to-surface missiles.

North Korea has placed surface-to-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea, Yonhap news agency said, as the United States and South Korea began military drills and China called for emergency talks.

China made clear that the talks would not amount to a resumption of six-party disarmament discussions which North Korea walked out of two years ago and declared dead. South Korea said it would carefully consider China's suggestion.

By: Shelldrake

South Korea Responds To Nork Attack

South Korea's defense minister has resigned and the government has pledged to deploy more troops to its islands in the Yellow Sea, as well as implement new rules of engagement to respond to any future attacks by North Korea.

South Korea is to strengthen its military force on five islands close to North Korea, amid tensions over a clash that left four people dead. It will also review military policy on the use of force, amid concerns it had become "rather passive". Its defence minister has resigned amid criticism of the response. North Korean shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday killed two civilians and two marines, and prompted an increase in regional tension.

[snip...]

After holding an emergency cabinet meeting, South Korea announced it would dramatically increase its military capability in the area.

"[The government] has decided to sharply increase military force, including ground troops, on the five islands in the Yellow Sea and allocate more of its budget towards dealing with North Korea's asymmetrical threats," the presidential senior public affairs secretary, Hong Sang-pyo, told reporters.

He said the government had also decided to make new rules of engagement "to change the paradigm itself of responding to North Korea's provocation", describing the current rules as "rather passive".

The BBC's Chris Hogg says the cabinet had decided that in the existing rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into something worse. There is now an awareness that this thinking had to change, our correspondent says. In future the South would implement different levels of response depending on whether the North Koreans attacked the military in the South or civilian targets, the spokesman said.

By: Shelldrake

More Troops Deployed To Sino-India Border

China's military buildup in Tibet has resulted in a decision by India to beef up its defences in Arunachal Pradesh.

India has formed two new army divisions - comprising more than 36,000 men - to defend the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. The remote north-eastern state adjoins China which claims large parts of it. The 56th Division will be based in the nearby state of Nagaland to guard the eastern flank of Arunachal Pradesh from Chinese attack through Burma. The other new formation, the 71st Division, will be based in Assam to protect central Arunachal Pradesh. There has been no response so far from China to the decision.

Already the Indian Fifth Mountain Division guards western Arunachal Pradesh while another division is responsible for protecting the eastern part of the state. In addition there are counter-insurgency troops in Assam who can be sent to the Sino-Indian border at short notice. A total of 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers have been assigned to the two new divisions, which are being especially equipped for mountain warfare.

Officials say they were formed at the behest of the Indian army chief, General VK Singh - who said they were necessary to beef up defences against China. Gen Singh was not available for comment but one of his staff officers, on condition of anonymity, told the BBC that the army chief had "pushed very hard to fast-track the raising of the two divisions". He said that they should be "fully operational" by March 2011. He said their formation was India's response to the "huge Chinese build-up" in Tibet over the last three to four years. But he did not wish to elaborate.

[snip...]

The formation of the two new divisions means that India's deployments in the eastern sector of its border with China now matches the five army divisions that existed in 1986-87, when the two countries nearly went to war.

By: Shelldrake

Draft-Dodging Concerns IDF

Service in the Israeli Defence Force is being avoided by a large number of Israeli men. I am frankly surprised by this news after watching the Monday video. What is wrong with these guys?!

Sixty percent of 18-year-olds will dodge the draft by 2020, Maj.-Gen. Avi Zamir, head of the army’s Manpower Division, warned on Thursday.

“The IDF still is a people’s army with fairly high motivation to serve, but there is a crack in society and we need to prevent that crack from growing,” Zamir told reporters during a briefing marking the IDF’s November draft.

Zamir repeated statistics revealed earlier this month that 50 percent of Israeli men between the ages of 18 and 40 already don’t serve in the IDF, either in their mandatory service or in the reserves corps.

The main cause for the increase in draft-dodging numbers, Zamir said, was the increasing number of haredi men who received an exemption from military service due to their ultra-Orthodox beliefs.

By: Shelldrake

DND Orders Video Games For Canadian Troops

Gamers in uniform who are stationed in Afghanistan as part of Canada's military mission can look forward to video gaming during their downtime, courtesy of the Department of National Defence.

Canadian soldiers stuck in lonely outposts in Afghanistan are the lucky recipients of a big stash of video games ordered just months before the military pulls out. Defence officials confirm that 500 copies of games such as "Gears of War," "Call of Duty," "Mortal Kombat," and "Assassins Creed" are destined for Canada's forward operating bases in the war-ravaged country. An estimated 500 to 600 soldiers are stationed at Ma'sum Ghar and Sperwan Ghar, Canada's main bases outside Kandahar, which works out to a video game for almost every gamer-in-uniform.

"It helps in keeping good morale ... to bring some relief to people working long hours," Cmdr. Hubert Genest said in an interview.

The large order, which includes some unwarlike games — such as "Guitar Hero 3," "The Beatles Rock Band," and "Tiger Woods 2011" — was issued by public tender last week. The competition closes early next month. Genest was not able to provide a dollar value, but at an estimated $50 a title, the order could be worth as much as $25,000.

[snip...]

Genest said the military has sent video games to Afghanistan in the past — he called it "routine" — as part of a morale and welfare program, and noted that games need to be updated every few years as they are improved.

"(Soldiers) are in location 24/7. They don't take any leave. And so this program exists," he said.

Genest added that even after the July 1 pullout, Canada is keeping some 950 soldiers in Afghanistan as military trainers, and they will have access to the existing stash of video games.

By: Shelldrake