If Only Warships Grew on Trees: The Complexities of Off-the-Shelf Defence Procurement

Image credit: Cpl Hugo Montpetit, Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Canadian Armed Forces Photo POLICY PERSPECTIVES by Timothy Choi and Jeffrey F. CollinsCGAI FellowsMarch 2022 DOWNLOAD PDF Table of Contets Introduction The OTS Solution? Capacity and Management Hurdles Conclusion About the Authors Canadian Global Affairs Institute Introduction Among the many issues being raised in Canada over Russia’s brutal, unprovoked war in Ukraine is the state of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and its equipment. As the lack of highly sought-after anti-tank and anti-aircraft portable missile systems in the CAF’s inventory makes abundantly clear, the type and quantity of equipment held by a country’s military has a direct bearing on its foreign policy. Defence policy and the CAF are typically not a major priority during the best of times, and with government attention on COVID-19 spending and recent high-profile domestic issues like the protests in Ottawa, the promise of additional dollars to the defence budget seems an unlikely probability. Yet, as former British prime minister Harold MacMillan famously noted over 60 years ago, events have a way of knocking a government off its agenda.