The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is expected to find out shortly which projects the government will be funding for the military. This will be outlined in the new defence policy, which is likely to be released “very soon” according to the Defence Minister, speaking at a recent CDAI event.
We don’t know for sure what programs will head this list, but in his speech the Minister highlighted fighter jets, surface combatants, Cormorant mid-life upgrades, Griffons life extension, Ground Based Air and Munitions Defence systems, Heavy Support Equipment, Logistic Support Vehicles and the need to “focus on emerging domains, like space and cyber.”
The new defence policy “will be a plan to allocate realistic funding to those ‘bread and butter’ projects that will keep our military running efficiently and effectively for years to come,” Minister Sajjan pointed out. As to when this plan will be released, other than “very soon” we know from what the Transport Minister Marc Garneau said a few days ago on CTV that the plan will be made public “before the Prime Minister heads to NATO.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to leave Ottawa on May 24 for the NATO heads-of-government meeting in Brussels. So, if everything goes according to plan, we may very well see the new defence policy in a few days.