BruceR links to a paper by a MCpl Sean Marshall making the argument that the solution to the Canadian military’s lack of heavy airlift is to start a Crown corporation leasing Ilyushins or Antonovs (the poor man’s C-17s) with a mandate to find customers for the airlift when the military doesn’t need it. DART could have been moved in four Antonov trips, Bruce points out.
One of the things I like about the Canadian military is the quality of individual soldiers – God knows we’ll never be able to compete on quantity. One healthy sign is the very articulate, well-argued staff papers we’ve been seeing coming from junior NCOs. Back when I was a reservist, years ago now, I thought that reserve officers could have a useful role saying contrarian things that regular officers couldn’t afford to, for career reasons. Now it turns out that role is being served, but by regular army corporals.
Another example: an infantry corporal’s long and completely convincing article in the current Dispatches about the deficiencies in the way the Canadian army trains to deal with battle casualties.