Mid-Career Army Officer

I like to write threads with funny gifs about Canadian Armed Forces culture, doctrine, and management issues - mostly late at night to avoid sleeping. This is a meta 🧵 of 🧵:

@DontJimmyMe366 Yep, about 500 trial rifles were shared around regular and reserve infantry since 2024. They were well recieved.

@MidOfficer You’d probably know the answer to this, has the CAF conducted trials on these new weapons?

I am once again begging people not to simply divide the contract value by the quantity and assuming that's the unit cost. 20-40% of any military contract is typically in-service support, spare parts, accessories, training, all necessary additional spending above item cost.

@nathan_P44 I haven't seen the specific plans but recent history suggests as much of the fleet as possible should be put into storage.

@MidOfficer Any idea what we are going to do with the older C7/C8's? Keep them around for a rainy day maybe?

@JessieTweeting For sure we need an Army innovation centre somewhere to start doing this stuff.

Hey @MidOfficer 👀 What if soldiers could just… make things? 😆

@cdc1630 @voteLabonte How many lost toes did you collect?

@voteLabonte @MidOfficer I was there. Of course they had snowshoes.

Most 🇨🇦 military exercises in the Arctic are about sovereignty & survival - when the weather gets bad, you hunker down. 3 RCR however was sent to JPMRC, which is an exercise about fighting a real enemy who wants to kill you, along with the weather. Good context in this article:

@danielmullen @voteLabonte Part of our problem is that this battalion will just go back into the Army calendar. This hard earned experience won't help anyone the next time around. It's time to build a dedicated arctic infantry battalion that always has a company group deployed up north.

@voteLabonte @MidOfficer That is the point: learn this now, otherwise we are hauling what is left of your frozen carcass back to your family.

@MMknra Did they recently introduce shrapnel into the NHL? NHL helmets are designed to protect against blunt trauma & concussion. A combat helmet could be designed to face a number of threats & scenarios. This one is designed to protect dismounted soldiers against ballistic impacts.

@MidOfficer I don’t think that would even be allowed by the NHL

The 🇨🇦 Army is making the Caiman our standard helmet but the exciting news is how. Rather than launching a lengthy procurement, we're using existing NATO framework contracts. Up next? We need to start using procurement as a service contracts to manage basic clothing & equipment.

@282xvl It's coming x.com/captpotatoold/…

@MidOfficer Good helmet but when the hell will they be updating the outrageously dated 1980s looking chest rigs? Or have they already and I missed it?

@StrategyBin This was all in the works before the DIS was released.

@MidOfficer It’s only the beginning for NSPA procurement. Watch & shoot.

@LimeSnazzy It's enough to equip the entire regular and reserve component of the Army at our current establishment. The CG634 are basically trash at this point, but the relatively recent CM735 is fit to store.

@MidOfficer Those seem like nice helmets, but really only 44k in total? Please tell me we're putting the older ones into some sort of long-term storage?

@ReiverHall It's happening. Not a lie.

@MidOfficer Please tell me there will be appropriate ear protection purchased at the same time that works with the helmet and eye pro. I’d like to think those still serving have fewer service related injuries… Lie if you have to.

@MikeOscar1984 Well we definitely agree on that. Can't believe we paid 27,000 people to quit in the early 1990s.

@MidOfficer Yep I’m not doubting the numbers but 44k is a pitiful number for a country this size.

@MarvelousMark17 It's an enduring debate - the balance between light weight and coverage. Pros and cons to both. Keep in mind that soldiers will be wearing electronic hearing protection or radio headsets that fill in that ear space.

@MidOfficer Forgive my ignorance but don’t these expose too much of the ear/side of the face? Don’t you want more cover not less?

@MikeOscar1984 We ordered 44,000 total helmets. The Canadian Army authorized strength is 22,500 regular soldiers and 21,500 reservists.

@MidOfficer The bigger story is how few helmets are required because the CAF are so undermanned.

@Gannicus60 The DEUs? Still the plan but delayed to 2027.

@MidOfficer In the army making progress in getting rid of those god awful green uniforms and replacing them with traditional brown-khaki?

@ColbyBadhwar I'm a little rusty on this one, been a few years since I worked on it. I believe it's already delegated by TB to a certain cost ceiling at either DM or MND level.

@MidOfficer What does the process look like for joining a NSPA framework contract and making the necessary payments to get a delivery order issued against it? I imagine Treasury Board still makes it complicated.

@davepurdyz @canadia47912 On top of a previous procurement there will be 44,000 of them, but they are being procured as a helmet for the Canadian Army only.

@canadia47912 @MidOfficer nope they ordered 29k