When writing a blog such as this it is all too easy to fall into a negative and possibly unhelpful tone. To remedy this lamentable situation I have decided to take the high road and offer some positive suggestions directly to the Minister of National Defence. Hence the following letter has been sent to the minister.
The Honourable Bill Blair, Dear Sir,
Having recently sent a letter to your department asking for information about a procurement decision I received in return an automatically generated response which included a large selection of other departments and organizations I could try to find answers to my questions. Sadly your office was next to last on the long list of of people who might be able to help me in my quest. Perhaps even more sadly the robot who sent the response apparently believes that Anita Anand is still the Minister of National Defence.
I choose not to believe that you, and your office, are of so little consequence. In fact I decided to take this opportunity to pass along a suggestion that you may find of use.
As you know Canada has chosen the OTO Melara 127/64 LW Vulcano gun system from Leonardo for use on at least the first 3 of our new CSC Type 26 Frigates.
While some will question the need for a 5” naval gun I worry that even those who support such a choice will fail to see the many advantages that I am sure this particular choice of weapons system will have for Canada and the R.C.N.
It is possible that these advantages may not be obvious to those nitpicking types who inhabit the opposition benches, the media and anyone else who does not properly understand Canadian defence procurement policy.
There are those who might be tempted to point out that by purchasing this particular weapon systems we have forfeited commonality with the UK and Australia who are also procuring Type 26 Frigate variants and who have both chosen to arm their versions of this ship with a different 5” gun, the BAE MK 45 Mod 4 naval gun.
As this is the same weapon used by the United States Navy there are even some who might question the decision to choose a more expensive gun over the option of arming our new ships with the same weapon used by our principle ally.
I am sure that, in the long run, the wisdom of spending more money in order to procure a weapons system different from our allies, which in turn will make it more difficult to maintain, will become apparent. However I must admit that I do wonder what kind of timeline we are looking at for this wisdom to become clear.
While we are waiting, no matter how long it takes, for what I am sure is the inevitable vindication of this choice I believe there is an opportunity for the department, and your office, to seize the moral high ground and silence any critics of this procurement decision once and for all.
As you may or may not know, in the past Canada purchased a similar weapons system. The DDH-280 Iroquois Class destroyers of the 1970’s were armed with an OTO Melara 5” weapon. At that time those guns were named after the OTO Melara technicians who installed them in Canada. The names given to the four guns were Pasquale, Tulio, Leno and Luigi.
As I am sure you can immediately appreciate there is a tremendous opportunity here to get out ahead of any similar naming convention that might arise and at the same time advance the progressive agenda of the Canadian Government, the Department of National Defence and, not least, the Liberal Party of Canada.
There may still be those who use words and phrases like “combat effectiveness”, “firepower", "lethality” or “bang for the buck” when trying to describe the missions and goals of the Department of National Defence. I think it fair to say that a more enlightened observer will use phrases like “creating high quality middle class jobs” and “empowering historically disadvantaged communities” when attempting to identify the modern purpose of the Canadian Armed Forces.
It is with this understanding that I urge you contact OTO Melara and insist in the strongest possible terms that any company representatives who accompany these new guns to Canada for installation include BIPOC members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community whose names reflect the new reality of a vibrant and ethnically diverse Italy.
The last thing we need is for these guns to be saddled with names associated with cis-gendered males with all their unfortunate connotations.
Finally, let me take this opportunity to wish you the best of luck in your ministry and be assured that I will be happy to offer any other advice I feel can help.
J. G. Murray
PS, you might want to do something about that whole “To contact the Minister of National Defence: https://www.canada.ca/en/government/ministers/anita-anand.html” situation.
UPDATE: After filling out the requisite form and sending my letter I received the following response;
Contact the Minister - Thank you
Thank you for writing to the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence. Please be assured your correspondence will be reviewed in due course. However, the whole-of-government approach to limit the spread of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) could affect the handling of correspondence, and there may be delays.
Your patience is appreciated.
Honestly, you have to see it to believe it.
