Defence procurement in Canada is a mess. New equipment is desperately needed for the Canadian Armed Forces, but most projects are behind schedule, over budget, or both. Not only has mismanagement cost Canadian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, it has also deprived Canada and the CAF of much-needed military capacity.
Successive governments — both Liberal and Conservative — have managed the complexities of defence procurement so poorly that it will take years before the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Canadian Army regain the capabilities they need. While new prime ministers invariably come to power promising to fix defence procurement problems inherited from their predecessors, getting it right has remained frustratingly elusive.
Charlie Foxtrot offers a fresh take on this important policy issue. It shows why governments have found it so difficult to equip the CAF efficiently, and offers a set of political prescriptions for fixing defence procurement in Canada.
- Order now from Dundurn Press, Amazon.ca or Indigo.ca
- Email me if you would like me to speak to your group or organization about defence procurement in Canada
- Download the index for Charlie Foxtrot here
Reviews of Charlie Foxtrot
- Nick Pavelich in Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, 20, no. 2 (2021): https://jmss.org/article/view/72099
- Andrea Lane in Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, 25, no. 2 (2018): https://doi.org/10.1080/11926422.2018.1478317
- Samir Battiss in Études internationales, 48, no. 1 (hiver 2017): https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ei/2017-v48-n1-ei03300/1042363ar/
- Andrea Charron in Canadian Military Journal, 17, no. 2 (Spring 2017): http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/Vol17/no2/page70-eng.asp
- Chris Murray in Defence Report, 9 January 2017: http://defencereport.com/book-watch-charlie-foxtrot-fixing-defence-procurement-canada/
- Eric Morse in iPolitics, 3 January 2017: ipolitics-ca-canadian-defence-procurement-still-looks-like-massive-case-of-charlie-foxtrot
- Matthew Fisher in National Post, 12 December 2016: national-post_-new-book-pleads-for-fix-to-canadas-dysfunctional-military-procurement-system
Kim Richard Nossal 