Government opens wallet wide for weapons of war
Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda , CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
KITCHENER, Ont. -- The gleaming steel cylinder is almost half as long as the average billiard cue but feels 10 times heavier. It will be dulled to black when it is transformed into an essential component of the basic weapon of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan - the barrel of the C7 assault rifle, through which some 20,000 bullets will flash before the weapon outlives its usefulness.
Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan are making record use of guns and bullets as they face some of their heaviest fighting since the Korean War. The Conservative government has tried to soften the rhetoric surrounding the war in Afghanistan this year, pressing messages of reconstruction and development while downplaying the combat role of the military.
But a CanWest News Service analysis tells another story: the Defence Department has also embarked this year on a record purchase of guns and ammunition.
In late February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to shift the focus away from the violence that has so far claimed the lives of 73 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat by announcing an additional $200 million in development aid.
But then, between February and late June, Canada spent almost $54 million on guns, ammunition, explosives, grenades and other weapons - more than in all of 2005 and 2006 combined.
Colt Canada, the Kitchener, Ont.-based company that manufactures the C7 assault rifle and the shorter-barreled C8 carbine exclusively for the Defence Department, says the escalation in fighting has not created a windfall for them.
"People think we're in this business to make money," says Francis Bleeker, Colt's director of sales. "If you want to make a bundle, go do something else."
The real money, says Bleeker, is in ammunition.
An analysis of Defence Department data shows that while Colt has sold $2.4 million worth of guns, spare parts and maintenance to the military so far this year, those numbers are dwarfed by the $46 million worth of bullets and mortars that General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada sold to the Canadian Forces during just five months in 2007.
Colt opened its factory for a short tour by CanWest News Service and allowed Bleeker to sit for an hour-long interview, but General Dynamics Ordnance, of Le Gardeur, Que., did not return calls for comment.
By contrast, its corporate cousin, General Dynamics Land Systems, has been effusive about promoting another product: the LAV III armoured vehicle that is designed to protect troops in Afghanistan.
While the Conservative government has been largely silent about guns and bullets, it too has been anxious to publicize its purchases of $20 billion worth of new hardware.
In the summer of 2006, then defence minister Gordon O'Connor spent a week touring Canada to announce contracts to purchase armoured trucks, supply ships and large aircraft, including the $10 billion worth of transport planes and helicopters it planned to buy from the two major American military contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Colt and General Dynamics Ordnance are subsidiaries of their larger American parent companies, Colt Defence and General Dynamics.
Colt and General Dynamics also share something else: the same well-connected Ottawa registered lobbyists, CFN Consultants, a firm composed of some retired ex-military officers and civilian public servants.
The U.S. army has also been a significant supplier of the Canadian army's weapons needs, selling Canadians $14 million worth of ammunition in late 2006.
That large purchase from the U.S. came last fall, shortly after Canadian troops participated in their most intense combat operations in half a century. Canada led NATO forces in Operation Medusa, the biggest anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan to date.
Since Canadian troops were stationed in Kandahar in August 2005, Colt has sold almost $7.7 million worth of weapons and services to the Canadian Forces.
But Bleeker says that a spike in fighting on the ground does not necessarily lead to a sudden rise in the purchase of guns.
"There's no such thing as impulse purchases in this case because there's so much involved," he argues. "Introducing something like a rifle takes training, logistics, organization. This is not something you just do overnight."
Colt and the Canadian military have a corporate relationship that dates back to the mid-1970s when the company, then known as Diemaco, became the exclusive supplier of the C7 assault rifle.
In 2005, the American-based Colt Defense bought the Kitchener operation and renamed it Colt Canada.
Colt retains the status it has held for three decades as the exclusive supplier of the C7 and C8, the Canadian derivative of the Americans' M16 assault weapon.
Similarly, the federal government has also designated General Dynamics Ordnance as the Forces' prime supplier of ammunition.
While Colt won't provide exact figures, Bleeker says the Forces stockpiled large quantities of rifles in the mid-'80s, during the height of the Cold War.
"Don't forget, when they were building up their stocks, they were preparing for the great Soviet onslaught," says Bleeker.
"The rifles that they're using in Afghanistan are as good as new," he adds. "They have been completely taken apart. Everything has been tested and, where necessary, bits and pieces have been replaced."
The need to upgrade the weaponry is also being driven by the fundamental shift in modern warfare from the Cold War to the post-9-11 world. Colt has had to adapt the C7 and its cousins through nearly two dozen design changes.
That means creating a lighter weapon onto which targeting equipment can be attached, such as a laser pointer or a red-dot site. Such features are essential in a modern counterinsurgency when fighting an enemy in the grape fields and mud-walled compounds of southern Afghanistan.
"There are various red-dot sites that allow you to move your head, keep one eye open to look around and keep one dot on the target," says Bleeker. "With two eyes open, you've got a lot more peripheral vision, checking what's around you."
Colt did such a thorough job of arming the Canadian military that the federal government gave it the green light in the 1990s to sell the assault rifle to a select group of NATO allies.
Colt now supplies the armies of the Netherlands and Denmark with versions of the C7, while the special forces of Norway in Britain are armed with guns made in Kitchener.
Today, the company has annual sales in the $10- to $25-million range, with Canada making up roughly half of that.
"We are good a corporate citizen," says Bleeker. "We are not cowboys. We do not flood the world with small arms. We can only sell to a very limited number of countries. We cannot even sell to all of NATO."
Bleeker said the company is always looking to expand its base, but it has to conform to the strict regulations that govern the export of small arms.
"We are looking at one particular company in Eastern Europe. They want to change from the Kalashnikov calibre to the 556-calibre, which is the NATO standard. That's going to take years."
Even though the training and equipping of tens of thousands of indigenous Afghan security forces is seen as the ticket home for Canadian troops and their western allies it doesn't look as though Colt will be selling its products to the Afghan National Army anytime soon.
Bleeker says that unless his company enters into a new agreement with the federal government, the Afghans will have to make do with their Kalashnikovs or whatever other weapons they can get their hands on now.
Government opens wallet wide for weapons of war
Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda , CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
KITCHENER, Ont. -- The gleaming steel cylinder is almost half as long as the average billiard cue but feels 10 times heavier. It will be dulled to black when it is transformed into an essential component of the basic weapon of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan - the barrel of the C7 assault rifle, through which some 20,000 bullets will flash before the weapon outlives its usefulness.
Canadian soldiers in southern Afghanistan are making record use of guns and bullets as they face some of their heaviest fighting since the Korean War. The Conservative government has tried to soften the rhetoric surrounding the war in Afghanistan this year, pressing messages of reconstruction and development while downplaying the combat role of the military.
But a CanWest News Service analysis tells another story: the Defence Department has also embarked this year on a record purchase of guns and ammunition.
In late February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to shift the focus away from the violence that has so far claimed the lives of 73 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat by announcing an additional $200 million in development aid.
But then, between February and late June, Canada spent almost $54 million on guns, ammunition, explosives, grenades and other weapons - more than in all of 2005 and 2006 combined.
Colt Canada, the Kitchener, Ont.-based company that manufactures the C7 assault rifle and the shorter-barreled C8 carbine exclusively for the Defence Department, says the escalation in fighting has not created a windfall for them.
"People think we're in this business to make money," says Francis Bleeker, Colt's director of sales. "If you want to make a bundle, go do something else."
The real money, says Bleeker, is in ammunition.
An analysis of Defence Department data shows that while Colt has sold $2.4 million worth of guns, spare parts and maintenance to the military so far this year, those numbers are dwarfed by the $46 million worth of bullets and mortars that General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada sold to the Canadian Forces during just five months in 2007.
Colt opened its factory for a short tour by CanWest News Service and allowed Bleeker to sit for an hour-long interview, but General Dynamics Ordnance, of Le Gardeur, Que., did not return calls for comment.
By contrast, its corporate cousin, General Dynamics Land Systems, has been effusive about promoting another product: the LAV III armoured vehicle that is designed to protect troops in Afghanistan.
While the Conservative government has been largely silent about guns and bullets, it too has been anxious to publicize its purchases of $20 billion worth of new hardware.
In the summer of 2006, then defence minister Gordon O'Connor spent a week touring Canada to announce contracts to purchase armoured trucks, supply ships and large aircraft, including the $10 billion worth of transport planes and helicopters it planned to buy from the two major American military contractors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Colt and General Dynamics Ordnance are subsidiaries of their larger American parent companies, Colt Defence and General Dynamics.
Colt and General Dynamics also share something else: the same well-connected Ottawa registered lobbyists, CFN Consultants, a firm composed of some retired ex-military officers and civilian public servants.
The U.S. army has also been a significant supplier of the Canadian army's weapons needs, selling Canadians $14 million worth of ammunition in late 2006.
That large purchase from the U.S. came last fall, shortly after Canadian troops participated in their most intense combat operations in half a century. Canada led NATO forces in Operation Medusa, the biggest anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan to date.
Since Canadian troops were stationed in Kandahar in August 2005, Colt has sold almost $7.7 million worth of weapons and services to the Canadian Forces.
But Bleeker says that a spike in fighting on the ground does not necessarily lead to a sudden rise in the purchase of guns.
"There's no such thing as impulse purchases in this case because there's so much involved," he argues. "Introducing something like a rifle takes training, logistics, organization. This is not something you just do overnight."
Colt and the Canadian military have a corporate relationship that dates back to the mid-1970s when the company, then known as Diemaco, became the exclusive supplier of the C7 assault rifle.
In 2005, the American-based Colt Defense bought the Kitchener operation and renamed it Colt Canada.
Colt retains the status it has held for three decades as the exclusive supplier of the C7 and C8, the Canadian derivative of the Americans' M16 assault weapon.
Similarly, the federal government has also designated General Dynamics Ordnance as the Forces' prime supplier of ammunition.
While Colt won't provide exact figures, Bleeker says the Forces stockpiled large quantities of rifles in the mid-'80s, during the height of the Cold War.
"Don't forget, when they were building up their stocks, they were preparing for the great Soviet onslaught," says Bleeker.
"The rifles that they're using in Afghanistan are as good as new," he adds. "They have been completely taken apart. Everything has been tested and, where necessary, bits and pieces have been replaced."
The need to upgrade the weaponry is also being driven by the fundamental shift in modern warfare from the Cold War to the post-9-11 world. Colt has had to adapt the C7 and its cousins through nearly two dozen design changes.
That means creating a lighter weapon onto which targeting equipment can be attached, such as a laser pointer or a red-dot site. Such features are essential in a modern counterinsurgency when fighting an enemy in the grape fields and mud-walled compounds of southern Afghanistan.
"There are various red-dot sites that allow you to move your head, keep one eye open to look around and keep one dot on the target," says Bleeker. "With two eyes open, you've got a lot more peripheral vision, checking what's around you."
Colt did such a thorough job of arming the Canadian military that the federal government gave it the green light in the 1990s to sell the assault rifle to a select group of NATO allies.
Colt now supplies the armies of the Netherlands and Denmark with versions of the C7, while the special forces of Norway in Britain are armed with guns made in Kitchener.
Today, the company has annual sales in the $10- to $25-million range, with Canada making up roughly half of that.
"We are good a corporate citizen," says Bleeker. "We are not cowboys. We do not flood the world with small arms. We can only sell to a very limited number of countries. We cannot even sell to all of NATO."
Bleeker said the company is always looking to expand its base, but it has to conform to the strict regulations that govern the export of small arms.
"We are looking at one particular company in Eastern Europe. They want to change from the Kalashnikov calibre to the 556-calibre, which is the NATO standard. That's going to take years."
Even though the training and equipping of tens of thousands of indigenous Afghan security forces is seen as the ticket home for Canadian troops and their western allies it doesn't look as though Colt will be selling its products to the Afghan National Army anytime soon.
Bleeker says that unless his company enters into a new agreement with the federal government, the Afghans will have to make do with their Kalashnikovs or whatever other weapons they can get their hands on now.
Government opens wallet wide for weapons of war
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