Alan Park
3.6K posts
Alan Park
@2apark
Observations from above a vineyard.
Summerland, British Columbia Katılım Mart 2011
192 Takip Edilen97 Takipçiler
Suffield has been one of the areas the Alberta government has been heavily promoting as a space for innovation. With the British settling into their current use case, it becomes a question of how we can better leverage existing capacity
National Newswatch@natnewswatch
Canadian army plans to boost activity at Alberta's massive CFB Suffield: commander nationalnewswatch.com/2026/03/26/can… #nationlnewswatch via @natnewswatch
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@JessieTweeting Exercised there in the early 90s where it was so flat that my gunner (who was taller) would stand on the turret to take a compass bearing to the nearest navigation tower to determine our position. It also snowed in August. However the UK did armour trg there for decades.
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They should turn the whole place into and ongoing simulated battle space with a full-time OPFOR.
Constantly rotating troops in/out from all over 🇨🇦. Not even specific units/brigades, mix it right up.
National Newswatch@natnewswatch
Canadian army plans to boost activity at Alberta's massive CFB Suffield: commander nationalnewswatch.com/2026/03/26/can… #nationlnewswatch via @natnewswatch
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@CDNPolicyHawk @Bentheblacklab @m_Janelle When I think of visual CAF outreach to maintain or strengthen the agreement between the civilian population and the military, it’s not 409 Sqn, the RCD, or HMCS Fredericton that’s the first CAF unit that comes to mind…
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@Bentheblacklab @m_Janelle I would think so.
I just know that sometimes things that seem like common sense at a broad level fall apart in the specific application. There's lots of specific information I don't and can't know, so I try to leave space for those possibilities.
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Grounding the Snowbirds until the FFLIT program is sufficiently advanced to provide a replacement aircraft, allowing the RCAF to focus on higher priorities in the interim, actually has a lot of merit.
Standing them back up will be a lift, but it's not time critical.
Sen. Denise Batters@denisebatters
Does Carney’s Liberal govt have a sneaky plan to ground our beloved @CFSnowbirds forever? This wk, the govt tabled its plan for DND cuts. The Fleet Divestments part sounds a lot like the Snowbirds are on the chopping block. I ask Govt #SenCA Leader: Is this true? If so, shame!
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@JessieTweeting What if inoperable aircraft and attrition causes the US to seize our aircraft “temporarily“, or missiles, ammunition, etc… Relying on a country that arbitrarily starts and stops its support, uses partners money to restock their inventories seems mistudded.
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@AlexRMcColl There are so many variables at play here that I would hesitate to assume that we get the helicopters that we have in mind now. Mr. Trump might lean on Canada to buy American, or he might equally deny Canada American military purchases out of spite.
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Past performance tends to predict future behaviour. Lockheed Martin makes both the Cyclone & F-35. Both programs are years behind schedule and well over budget. DND is already talking about a mixed fleet of expensive American helicopters. We should have a mixed fleet of fighters.
David Pugliese@davidpugliese
Cyclone helicopters won’t be fully operational until 2029 — 25 years after contract was signed The Canadian military had hoped to declare the new fleet fully operational this September. ottawacitizen.com/public-service… via @ottawacitizen
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@WayneORegan1 @DivebumChef I’m not sure about the requirements now: but when I was in, it was WO and up or if you were working in a bilingual command position. In the reserves there was greater leeway depending on actual bilingual requirements and availability of bilingual personnel.
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@DivebumChef If I’m not mistaken French requirement for officers starts at majors going into command positions CO’s, NCM requirement is for CWO’s in command positions RSM’s.
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I have 3 close friends since a cadet that joined CAF as ncm, UTPM so had Bach degrees that can't speak French if held a gun to their head.. that have retired as Major/LCDR.
Of course they didn't dodge tours like Tom did and brag about it.
Anyhow....
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@pbontoast1 @Bentheblacklab It is a different form of corruption, but it seems to me that it was more twisting the requirements and in fact the entire program to suit the political narrative. Beyond the need for new helicopters, there was no consideration of the Navy & Air Force’s actual needs.
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@Bentheblacklab It was an idea so bad that for me begs the question of follow the money and who decided what. For me not just a story of incompetence - a story of possible malfeasance. That's what i want investigated
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Pug has me blocked bc I criticized him once but here's the rub on Cyclone-🇨🇦 cannot afford the vision of Cyclone, and a grand crewed do everything vision it was, but when Sikorsky started losing $/interest we were saddled with a flawed platform and no alternative but cancelling
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I hope Canada starts getting ahead of this. Because we need to learn to defend against this.
OSINTtechnical@Osinttechnical
An Iranian-backed militia carried out a successful FPV drone strike on Camp Victory in Iraq yesterday, successfully hitting multiple targets. Seen here, one of the FPV attack munitions hits a parked UH-60 Black Hawk.
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@LimeSnazzy @JessieTweeting I’m pretty sure I’m older than anybody serving. That mindset can occur at any age. But the change will happen. Unfortunately for the Russians and the US, the use of drones has been demonstrated. If history is a guide, several paths will be chosen but only a few will work out.
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@JessieTweeting @2apark We need to be utilizing our mechanical/electrical engineers more.
You're absolutely right. A total mind shift has to happen and I'm worried the CAF isn't doing to shift at all. Bunch of crusty old geezers running the show who have their heads in the sand and up their asses
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30% of infantry replaced near-term, maybe 80% over time. That’s not evolution—that’s disruption.
Land forces aren’t going away, but they’re not the centre of gravity anymore.
The danger is institutions fighting to stay relevant instead of transforming.
Alexander Kamyshin@AKamyshin
We believe that up to 30% of our infantry could be replaced by UGVs already now, potentially 80% over time. You can argue the numbers or the timeline, but the shift is undeniable. UGVs are a game changer. youtu.be/2pQvj4bJqv0
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@TheAngry53586 9 months deployment on a first in class. There's probably a few things that need work.
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A year sounds excessive unless she was due an extended assessed maintenance period anyway. Again, like HMS Dragon, it’s hard to overstate how disruptive sudden changes and extended deployments throw a ships programme into the air /1
GIF
ChrisO_wiki@ChrisO_wiki
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@JessieTweeting In the near future it's more probably a combination of automation and foot soldiers. Full automation has the downside of making war easier as your sending machines to die not people.
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@2apark I personally think hundreds of thousands of soldiers killing each other on some front line is an inefficient and wasteful way to fight a war. Wars don’t end from just killing soldiers, but bringing a nation to its knees. That’s infrastructure and will.
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@JessieTweeting I absolutely agree, but I see a seesaw in technology similar to the the tank. Whether its through cyber, electromagnetic or superior weapons drones will alternately dominate and fail.
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@2apark Drones (as we know them today) are just one tool in a new paradigm shaping. They get all the attention now but we’re just in the first years of a new era of warfare. One that kills much more and much faster. Just like the last one. We’re in the space age. Land war will change.
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@perfidiousleaf @NoahGairn Thinking a typical Ukraininan drone attack with 5-6 surface drones and 8-12 aerial drones targeting each ship simultaneously. The expected leakage is 2-3, with the serial drones targeting the sensor.
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@2apark @NoahGairn I don’t think it’s particularly under armed, between a capable main gun, 30mm secondary guns, a RAM launcher, 24 VLS & potentially an unknown number of something like JAGM in those cells on the broadside. 5” & 30mm guns are capable of firing fuzed ammo for use against drones.
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@mikethenavyguy Feds only own 2% or so of the land. Perhaps there’s environmental regs on changing the layout?
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Uhm, isn't it currently a federal thing that would need to get resolved first or can the province just push them out of the way?
CP24@CP24
#BREAKING: Ontario to seize ownership of Toronto Island Airport lands and declare it is a special economic zone cp24.com/local/toronto/…
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@pbontoast1 @JessieTweeting Absolutely, thinking that establishing the trades and rerolling existing (some reserve due to army size) units is a quicker path to establishing drone throughout the army. Giving the RCAF a defensive regiment seems like an idea for the bases.
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@2apark @JessieTweeting To be clear I don’t GAF who does drones in the CAF, but it needs to happen yesterday and without all the bullshit institutional cement feet. And they might want to bring some actual pilots, tacticians and sensor operators on board since they already exist in the RCAF
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You can quote DND policy and process all day, but we’ve had years to grasp how critical drone operators are. It’s 2026 and there’s still no dedicated drone MOC. History will judge that as institutional failure.
Peter 🇺🇦@PetTheGreat1
The Dutch army will open up to 1200 vacancies next month for drone operators so they can add drone and anti drone units to its formations. Seems my country is finally getting the message about modern warfare.
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