TABLE OF CONTENTS

FRONTLINE DEFENCE 2015: ISSUE 2

The Commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT) and Joint Force Command Atlantic talks to FrontLine about his priorities.

The Canadian Surface Combatant project is steadily progressing towards choosing a platform designer and a Combat System Integrator. A modern warship is one of the most complex human-engineered systems on and there are many challenges involved in integrating such a complex system of increasingly complex systems.

With the next election set for 19 October, the government faces relentless Opposition in the House of Commons. To avoid making a decision that may cost it votes, the government is leaving the fighter jet replacement millstone in the custody of the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat (NFPS), which was set up in early 2012. However, further study is pointless and a decision is long overdue.

While the Loyal Opposition was established to hold the ruling government to account through constructive and responsible interrogation in the House. A more current definition (found on ask.com) describes the Loyal Opposition as “a group of dissenters who seek to disrupt the programs of the party in charge.” The question now, is who cares what the people want?

After two decades of accepting American unipolarity, have Chinese leaders decided the relative balance of power, while not equal, has shifted significantly in its favour to the degree that the time to act is now?

The tiny country of Djibouti, uniquely situated where the Africa, Arabia and Somalia tectonic plate boundaries meet, is becoming recognized as a strategic location for military efforts. French, US, and Japan’s armed forces, currently based in the area guarding the Bab-el-Mandeb Straight, are assigned missions on this triple front.

Casting the anti-ISIS mission as some sort of immoral misadventure, as it has by some, propagates a view that the world’s misfortunes are all the fault of the West and that liberty, democracy, freedom, and equality are inventions best kept to ourselves.

The PPF course is for advanced infantry certification on a variety of infantry operations including: airborne, airmobile, rugged terrain and amphibious operations. Trained to rapidly deploy from water, land or air, soldiers with Patrol Pathfinder certification fill a valuable niche in the Canadian Army, including both combat and humanitarian roles.

The current Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, has focused considerable attention on digital operations in the re-set of the U.S. Navy and its approach to 21st century operations. From electronic warfare, to digital interoperability, to integrated fire support and cyber security, the Admiral has underscored that mastering the digital domain is an essential warfighting competence.

Upon arriving in Dnipropetrovsk at 6AM, our reporter was met by a team of Ukrainian army officers; their mismatched hand-me-down uniforms from western allies betrays the condition of the Ukrainian army facing modern Russian weapons.