OPINION: by The Honourable Jean Jacques Blais
Just how many wake-up calls do we really NEED?
Canada’s lack of investment in its military is regularly in the headlines. Media seizes on each tragedy as examples of the government’s failure to adequately provide proper, modern and safe equipment to enable the men and women of our armed forces to do the job they are being asked to do. We need to seriously examine how we equip our military to represent our nation to the world. Although Canada is not a poor country, it has gained international notoriety for trying to defend itself – and what it stands for – on the cheap.

Policy: by Major Rob Day
Every Pitfall is a Pratfall – Taking Defence Responsibilities Seriously
On the eve of the forthcoming Defence Review and the inevitable White Paper, it is necessary to remind those responsible for this endeavour of the need to avoid some of the more egregious pitfalls and pratfalls of previous documents, so that we can perhaps start afresh.

R & D - NEOps: by Dr Orrick White & Dr Ingar Moen
The Human Dimensions of Network Enabled Operations (NEOps)
In the USA and Austrialia, it's called Network Centric Warfare (NCW) and Network Centric Operations (NCO). The UK and NATO call it Network Enabled Capability. Canada calls it Network Enabled Operations ("N-E-Ops"). Whatever you call it, the human-system interface is where the 'rubber hits the road.' Without systems that are designed to be human-centric, NEOps will be a ‘non starter.’ Studies of command and control compatibility between human operators and the network need to be conducted. Without this human oriented emphasis, unintended consequences will emerge.

TRADE RELATIONS: Interview by Chris MacLean
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITARs)
An interview with Stan Jacobson, VP Export, CDIA US State Department Policy – Office of Defense Trade Controls: Canada’s defence industry is struggling to find ways to mitigate some aspects of the ITAR policy and the way it is administered. The CDIA (Canadian Defence Industries Association) has some recommendations which may help.

FYI - UAVs: by MGen (ret) John Leech
Learning to Walk Before We Run with ALIX
CFEC has conducted a series of simulated and live experiments with “uninhabited aerial vehicles” (UAVs) and the information environment that supports their use. The Atlantic Littoral ISR Experiment (ALIX), is the latest major undertaking in the ongoing CFEC program.

NAVAL INITIATIVES: by Chris Wattie
The Halifax Class Modernization Project
The Department of National Defence (DND) has a $3-billion plan to upgrade the frigates. But what was to have been a mid-life refit and modernization has been pushed back by funding shortfalls to the point that the oldest vessels of the class are not scheduled to begin their nine-month facelift until 2011.

INTERNATIONAL FORCES - Germany: by Mark Romanow
German Bundeswehr Transforming for Deployability
The reduced post Cold War threat, attendant budget reductions, and numerous regional conflicts are driving factors behind the comprehensive restructuring of the Bundeswehr (Military) since German reunification, from a large Mechanized (MECH) force structured to repel heavy armoured attacks by Warsaw Pact forces at the InnerGerman border, into lighter rapidly deployable units suited for UN-missions and Peace Support Operations (PSOs).

AIR FORCE: by Stefan Degraef and Edwin Borremans
AETE’s Fab T-Birds – Ejecting Dummies, Saving Lives
As the exclusive flight test agency of the Canadian Forces (CF), the AETE (Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment) conducts a wide variety of flight and ground testing involving every aircraft and helicopter type in the Canadian inventory. Furthermore, AETE is also responsible for the evaluation of all new systems to be installed on air-launched weapons used by Canadian military aircraft and helicopters.

ANALYSIS: by Sunil Ram
The DND/CF Manpower Crisis
So what IS the reality at NDHQ and DND? Though there is a manpower crisis in the rank and file of the CF, quite the opposite situation exists within the officer ranks. It might be described as ‘officer bloat,’ a situation whereby, from a practical military position, there are statistically too many officers for the number of non-commissioned officers and soldiers in a military organization.

NATO ROUNDTABLE: by Joshua Kilberg
Terrorism / NATO / WMD
The Atlantic Council of Canada hosted Ted Whiteside, head of NATO’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Centre, for a roundtable discussion on how NATO is addressing terrorism and WMD concerns. Speaking from the broadest possible definition of NATO – that is, its 26 member states, as well as the seven Mediterranean Dialogue nations, and the 20 partner countries – Whiteside’s presentation offered a unique glimpse into the current WMD defence planning.

CANADA/US PARTNERING: by Tara Borin
CABC Awards – Defence Industry Recognized
Recognizing efforts leading to the successful development and marketing of Reactive Skin Decontaminate Lotion (RSDL), a revolutionary safety product for first responders, the ODEL / E-Z-EM team is the recipient of this year’s prestigious Canadian American Business Council (CABC) Achievement Award. The team of O’Dell Engineering Ltd. of Cambridge, Ontario, and EZ-EM, Inc. of Lake Success, New York, was selected as this year’s recipient of the Canadian American Business Achievement Award celebrating highly successful business partnerships between Canadian and American firms.

AIR FORCE: by Peter Pigott
JSF Contract Update
By the 1990s, the U.S. Government wanted a single-engine, stealthy (radar-evading), supersonic multi-role fighter for warfare 40 years into the future. And if that wasn’t difficult enough, it also had to be “transformational.” With development costs for modern fighters rising, commonality and outsourcing to multiple allies became the norm that produced the Tornado, the Eurofighter, and the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).