[R-G] Canadian military goes global with new supply bases

[Anthony Fenton]

Canadian military goes global with new supply bases

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/551818

OTTAWA — Canada's military is locked into the Afghan mission until  
2011, but is preparing for the next war or peacekeeping mission by  
establishing a series of supply depots around the world, The Canadian  
Press has learned.

Germany this week became the first country to agree to host a small  
detachment of Canadian military and civilian supply clerks, who will  
share space with the U.S. forces at an air base in Spangdahlem.

Ottawa is also negotiating with other NATO allies and plans to  
approach governments in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, the  
Caribbean and South America for similar ventures.

"We've learned a lot through transformation and the operations of the  
past few years," Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the country's top military  
commander, said in a recent interview.

The supply depots, essentially small warehouse operations located in  
strategic regions, would allow for the stockpiling of equipment and  
ammunition for future missions.

Natynczyk said if the Canadian military is to play a role in hot spots  
around the world - as Defence Minister Peter MacKay recently suggested  
- then "we need significant bilateral relations with countries (where)  
we can pre-position combat supplies and equipment."

The plan envisions both sea and air bases, staffed in some cases by as  
many as half a dozen Canadians, located in friendly countries but  
close to potential trouble spots.

The depots could be used as jumping off points for military or  
humanitarian missions, said a senior defence official who spoke on  
background.

Critics have long complained the Afghan war has hamstrung the Canadian  
army, tied up resources and prevented it from undertaking other armed  
interventions - or peacekeeping assignments.

New Democrats, for example, have lobbied for an intervention to stop  
the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. But military officers have said  
that such missions can work only if there staging points from which  
troops can deploy or be supplied.

Natynczyk's predecessor, Gen. Rick Hillier, often warned the army  
didn't have the manpower to carry out two simultaneous operations in  
different parts of the globe.

But documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to  
Information Act show the bigger problem has been establishing a supply  
train to sustain a tandem operation when the country has virtually no  
overseas military bases.

"The CF lacks sufficient capability to constantly maintain the  
operational level support task because of policy decisions that  
resulted in these capabilities not being assigned or funded," said a  
November 2006 draft report prepared for National Defence headquarters.

The cost-cutting abandonment of bases in Germany by the Mulroney  
government as part of its peace dividend in the early 1990s has  
particularly hampered the military's ability to quickly deploy  
missions abroad.

Canada does maintain a secret base in the Middle East, through which  
much of the Afghan war supplies are funnelled. But the camp - an air  
base - has limited capacity.

Since the closure of Canada's Cold War bases in Europe, supplies and  
equipment for troops in the field on UN peacekeeping missions have  
been shipped directly from Canada.

It's a costly process, often complicated by the use of civilian cargo  
ships.

On one occasion, a contract dispute after the war in Kosovo saw a  
shipping company refuse to deliver the army's vehicles and the  
Canadian navy put in the embarrassing position of having to seize the  
vessel on the high seas.

There have also been ad hoc supply-base agreements, such as with tiny  
country of Qatar, to provide naval support during the first Gulf War.

The reorganization of the Canadian Forces, championed by Hillier, saw  
the creation of a specific headquarters dedicated solely to supporting  
overseas missions - the Canadian Operational Support Command.

One of its first tasks was to develop a list of potential countries  
where Canada could station forward-supply bases, similar in scope and  
size to "FedEx depots," said a senior defence official.