Despite facing heavy pressure to ramp up military spending, the Department of National Defence (DND) has slow-rolled one of the least complex of its vehicle replacement programs.

The light utility vehicle program has been on the books for several years. Its purpose is to update the military’s fleet of two-decade-old Afghan war-era Mercedes G-Wagons and civilian-grade utility vehicles, such as pickups and SUVs.

The light utility vehicle program isn’t as high-tech as some other military procurement projects — but it’s still a perfect example of how a procurement system petrified of making mistakes can take a very long time to get anything done, said Steve Saideman, a defence expert at Carleton University.

“We’d rather have no corruption and slow purchases rather than [moving] fast and [accepting] more risk of making mistakes,” he said.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    51·
    2 months ago

    Uh… I’m fine with this. Look at the US to see what no oversight gets you - if it takes longer and we waste less money that’s alright.

    • MajorMajormajormajor
      9·
      2 months ago

      If only we wasted less money. Every item procured is late and costs more than anticipated.

      Look at the new AOPs that Irving is fumbling though making. They’re delivered with massive deficiencies, can’t do half of what was on the contract, and somehow are out of warranty so Irving won’t pay for the repairs? Seems reasonable.

      • girlfreddyOP
        7·
        2 months ago

        Irving should be banned from bidding on any Canadian contracts ever again.

        And before the nationalists jump in, I don’t gaf if they’re the only Canadian company capable of jobs like this. If they can’t do it right they can listen to Al.

        • HikingVet
          6·
          2 months ago

          One could argue that they aren’t capable of these types of jobs due to the end product being a fucking half billion dollar joke a piece.

          • girlfreddyOP
            4·
            2 months ago

            Yup. The whole Irving empire is just one big cesspool that should be broken up.

            • Jim Knowles@mastodon.social
              2·
              2 months ago

              @girlfreddy @HikingVet Please dont anti trust the Irvings until they have built the new Juniper wind farm. JDI wind power is our best hope to catch that albatross NB Power in its wake turbulence and topple it over into its well deserved death spiral.

              and also infect higgs, hogan, and austin with "windmill noise brainworm cancer ". although Grasseschi likely already did it with her anti 2slgbtq+ exorsist conversion therapy.

              the woke Elders of THE CABAL OF ARGUS
              We will see

              :wq

    • girlfreddyOP
      3·
      2 months ago

      More significantly, the estimated cost of the program has risen to somewhere between $750 million and $1 billion, from an initial projection of $499 million.