🇨🇦 Policy Hawk retweetledi
The Boreal Forest laughs at a nation that cannot take care of its own lettuce
Mitch Proctor 🇨🇦@GaullistTory
Honestly a lot of this wildfire discourse has revealed how stupid and ignorant a lot of people are.
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🇨🇦 Policy Hawk
15K posts
🇨🇦 Policy Hawk
@CDNPolicyHawk
Freelance Canadian security analyst & writer. https://t.co/nu5qyWHWFN Also published by: @VanguardMag | https://t.co/4nHz6brCyR | https://t.co/IixSnKpARp | @navalassn | @DominionReview
Katılım Aralık 2022
498 Takip Edilen4.8K Takipçiler
🇨🇦 Policy Hawk retweetledi
Climate change.
Canada’s boreal forest is far north.
Most parts of it only reach 64F (18C) averages in the heat of the summer.
Its density and climate also means it gets very little evaporation compared to its rainfall, and is subject to frost 9 months of the year, and heavy fog the rest of the time.
This kept this biome very humid, kept soil damp, and left most of the low level foliage coated in dew all day long.
Some parts of the forest even had thick levels of permafrost beneath the topsoil that on rare hot days would seep water back into the ecosystem.
Just as many wildfires started by lightning strike in previous decades as now.
The difference is they struggled to catch and spread in this damp environment.
Now extreme dry weather, record breaking heat, northern thaw, erode that protective moisture barrier, leaving the boreal forest vulnerable especially in the more southern parts.
Boreal forests previously went through this process naturally when an over density caused a drier environment you’d get high-intensity crown fires that were cyclical. Every 50-200 years depending on region.
Now we get them annually.
Boreal forest fires are much more severe than others too. The long history of cyclical burns means the soil contains charcoal, the thick multi-layer foliage adds fodder and causes the fire to spread quickly, and pine, spruce, and aspens are all some of the trees with both the most density and the best for wood burning.
It results in towering forest fires of immense heat and rapid spread.
These forests are denser than anything else in North America or Europe, and the current fire in Ontario alone, is the same square mileage as the entire state of Delaware.
From the time it ignited, to covering that size, took less than 20 hours.
While some in the US still think climate change is a hoax, we are all going to deal with the consequences of it, as we’ve turned the largest forest in the world into a tinder box, and fires in less than 0.01% of it drowns the entire continent in smoke.
Zurac III@Caruzkcab
Will someone explain why we didn't get this Canadian smoke in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, or 2010s? Now twice in the 2020s. Seems weird to me
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I am sometimes a twit...
But CL-415s are a sub-type of CL-215s, which is why this particular plane's type certificate refers to it as a "CL-215-6B11 (Series CL-415)".
When talking about a specific plane, you're absolutely right that it's more common to refer to it as a CL-415.
But there's nothing incorrect about calling it a CL-215, and if you're referring to a group of aircraft that includes a mix of sub-types, "CL-215s" is the correct way to refer to them collectively. My original draft of this post talked about them collectively, and I guess the "CL-215" name survived the edits.
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@CDNPolicyHawk @dehavillandAIR This is a CL-415 you twit. The 215 has piston engines...ask me how I know.
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🇨🇦 Policy Hawk retweetledi
In May, @dehavillandAIR invited me to to take a close look at one of their iconic water bombers, many of which are being used to fight wildfires across Canada right now.
This particular airframe is a '90s vintage CL-215 belonging to the Government of Quebec, but it's being used as a technology demonstrator ahead of the completion of the first CL-515s.
The production line for these aircraft shut down in 2015 before De Havilland acquired rights to the aircraft in 2016. They announced that they would be establishing a new production line for an updated CL-515 variant in 2022, and have been working towards new aircraft since.
The initial CL-515 is expected to fly in 2027, with deliveries starting in 2028. The first ~20 deliveries are all going to European governments and will occupy all available production through 2030. Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba have all placed orders with their scheduled delivery dates being split between 2031 and 2032.
The photos include an external shot of the entire fuselage, one focused on its starboard Pratt & Whitney Canada PW123AF, an image of its flight deck (which has been upgraded to reflect what will be present on the new CL-515s), and an internal shot facing the front of the aircraft from the mid-section, in which you can see the two main water tanks on each side and through to the flight deck.
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@PapaOoomMowMow @dehavillandAIR Hmm... yeah, fair enough. I do see that, now.
Still seems easier than acquiring a completely separate type of aircraft. But it's clearly less straightforward than I thought.
Is MAFFS completely ro/ro on the C-130?
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@CDNPolicyHawk @dehavillandAIR Retractable doors in the fuselage undercarriage.
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It looks like it's a one time modification to install tie down points, which doesn't impact other uses?
I'm reading about this now, so I might be missing something. But that doesn't seem especially extensive to me.
Certainly, you could do far more extensive modifications than that and still be a lot easier to manage than acquiring an entirely separate fleet of aircraft.
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@CDNPolicyHawk @dehavillandAIR The RADS-XXL is not a true roll on roll off system in that it requires extensive and permanent modification of the C-130 airframe.
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@PapaOoomMowMow @dehavillandAIR This is just based on public-facing descriptions, not technical specs, but Coulson's RADS-XXL seems to fit all the criteria.
4,000 gallons is more than 30,000 lbs, compatible with the C-130, and described as roll-on, roll-off.
coulsonaviation.com/rads/
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@CDNPolicyHawk @dehavillandAIR I'm pretty sure the C130 kit is smaller than 30,000 lbs.
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Only 20,000 lbs? There are ro/ro firefighting kits for the C-130 that let them drop over 30,000 lbs, and the A400 is a lot bigger.
The RCAF doesn't have them, of course, and I think there would be a lot of push back against getting them because it would, effectively, force those assets to do firefighting and nothing else for 3-4 months every year. And they're needed for other work.
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@CDNPolicyHawk @dehavillandAIR It's good to see these new bombers being built but we should augment these domestic fleets with RCAF A400Ms. One of the new features of the latest iteration of the A400M is a ro/ro firefighting kit that turn them into a water bomber with a 20,000lbs payload capacity.
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@captpotatoold @dehavillandAIR I'm not sure what the most restrictive bottleneck is for them, so I couldn't say. But more orders are probably a piece.
Their order book right now is only several dozen aircraft.. not hundreds. And existing orders may not want to be bumped up for financial reasons.
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@CDNPolicyHawk @dehavillandAIR The question: how deHavilland can ramp up production? Maybe the Defense investment agency could help, as this is a Security challenge. It may help finance provinces buys. The more bombers there is, the less CAF are to be called to help…
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@dehavillandAIR *Correction: That's the port engine.
(Also, why can I not edit this post @Support ? The option has disappeared from the drop-down)
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@dehavillandAIR Incidentally, this specific aircraft flew from Ottawa (where I saw it) to Waterloo (my local airport) a couple days after I saw it, and doesn't appear to have flown since.
So, it's not currently fighting fires. I assume it's in Waterloo for additional modifications.
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@pipesnake99 @NoahGairn No.
I'm also a bit old, would have trouble making it work for my family, and would need to stop writing.
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@NoahGairn @CDNPolicyHawk I love reading your takes on our armed forces. Have either of you considered joining? We need smart and motivated people.
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@CDNPolicyHawk New rule: People making foolishness comments about wildfires in Canada need to spend a week in a borreal forest with no compass before another comment.
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Donald seems to think there should be a price on pollution.
Carbon Tax Trump.
Scott Robertson@sarobertson_
Trump: "The United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air ... cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."
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@Schizointel Do what faster? We have an order in place.
You're saying we should do something today, but your suggestions for "what" are all based on an unchangeable past.
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Do it faster. It shouldn't take 15 years to sign a memorandum of understanding. It shouldn't take nearly a decade to renegotiate a contract and now that there's a memorandum of understanding, how many more years will it take to actually sign an agreement let alone actually start seeing the aircraft
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It took 15 years for Canada to sign an MOU for the Gripen
NOAH@NoahGairn
Saab and CAE Sign MOU for Gripen in Canada open.substack.com/pub/truenorths…
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@Schizointel You're getting some details wrong... but notwithstanding that, so what? We are where we are and that's all history.
You posted today, calling on Canada to "Just do something".
We have an order in place that we're waiting on the US to fulfill. What would you like us to do?
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The initial order of 65 F-35s was in 2010. This was then scrapped completely in 2015 and then took 8 years to make a new deal for 88 F-35s
Let's not forget. The reason it was canceled in 2015 was Trudeau's campaign of never the f-35 and then he failed to make a deal for Gripen like he promised.
Like if the original deal from 2010 was never canceled The first F-35s would have arrived in 2016 and the last one would have arrived in 2023. Instead the first one's going to arrive at the end of 2026 and the last will arrive in 2034.
Also originally the hornet would have began retirement in 2017 and be completely phased out by 2020 and now instead will phased out in 2032
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@Duke_113 No.
The original bridge deal is public, we know what it says.
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@CDNPolicyHawk Is it possible that:
The bridge had an amortization schedule planned. And that under the old deal, any extra revenue/profits/etc went to accelerate this schedule. But under the new deal the extra goes towards the 50-50 split?
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🇨🇦 Policy Hawk retweetledi
Greetings from Iceland! ⚓
The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent recently arrived in Reykjavik, where we’ll conduct exercises and take part in the Icelandic Coast Guard's 100th anniversary celebrations.
#BravoZulu !
Photos 📷: MCpl Jon King, Canadian Armed Forces Combat Camera
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