BRIAN DUNN / MONTREAL
Report fears decline in spending could lead to service's demise and damage US relations
Canada's air force could disappear by the end of this decade without a massive capital infusion, says a study prepared by Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
The report, Canada Without Armed Forces?, says that if the issue is not addressed, Canada will have trouble exerting control over its own territory, making a contribution to international peacekeeping and repairing its damaged relationship with the USA because of its lack of military spending.
The study says the defence budget should be increased to C$18.5 billion ($14.2 billion) annually, from its current level of C$13.5 billion. The list of equipment that needs to be replaced includes everything from transport trucks and Sikorsky CH-124A Sea King helicopters (a task now under way) to Lockheed Martin C-130 transport aircraft and fuel supply ships.
The study notes that Canada's defence budget has declined from 2.2 % of the country's gross domestic product between 1985 and 1987 to 1.1% today, a drop of 50%. It says the Canadian Forces are facing a C$15 billion shortfall for major equipment purchases over the next five years and C$30 billion over the next 15 years.
A Canadian Forces briefing document finds that "almost two-thirds of Canada's fleet of CC-130 Hercules, the workhorse of the air force, is listed as unavailable, grounded by growing maintenance problems, a shortage of trained mechanics and old age". Retired general Brian MacDonald, who provided the study with data about the problem of equipment corrosion, says the Hercules situation is grim: "As the aircraft age, their maintenance cost soars and their availability rates drop. At current spending levels, we cannot achieve any of the goals set out in the 1994 White Paper. We either have to put up the money or tell the forces what services have to be dropped."
In 1995, military spending was cut by C$2 billion a year by then finance minister Paul Martin, who became prime minister on 12 December.
Source: Flight International
