Article Summary – Canada’s Army, once renowned from Vimy Ridge to Kandahar, is now struggling with hollowed-out capabilities and deep structural problems.
-A broken procurement system has left troops using aging vehicles and lacking modern essentials such as drones, air defenses, and long-range fires, while training doctrine still lags behind multi-domain warfare.
-At the same time, recruiting and retention are hampered by poor housing, low morale, and limited career prospects.
Canadian Tank Firing. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The wider Canadian Armed Forces share similar issues, with the Royal Canadian Air Force facing serious readiness gaps. Whether higher NATO spending targets and new leadership can reverse the decline remains unclear.
The Canadian Army: A Shadow of Its Former Self
Notwithstanding its satirical depiction in the 1999 motion picture South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the Canadian Army has a prestigious history. Its proud warrior culture runs from the Canadian Expeditionary Force of World War I, which included the deadly sniper Herbert Wesely McBride, to the troops that stormed the beaches of Dieppe during World War II.
Canadian forces were a component of the multinational coalition that kicked Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and Canadian soldiers contributed magnificently to the war on terror in Afghanistan: The living legend Corporal Rob Furlong of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry held the world record for the longest confirmed combat kill from 2002 to 2009.
Alas, the current Canadian Army is a shell of its former self. It is not clear that the service is in fighting shape anymore.
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
The Canadian Army’s current woes boil down to systemic crises/critical vulnerabilities:
-A broken procurement system whose cost overruns and delays actually make the U.S. Department of War’s much-maligned procurement system look good in comparison.
The inefficiency results in an Army that operates obsolescent equipment and lacks essential modern warfighting capabilities (advanced air defense systems, drones, and long-range artillery), a shortcoming that becomes embarrassingly evident in comparisons with NATO allies.
To make matters worse, training methods also lag, failing to incorporate multi-domain warfare concepts.
-Manpower maladies consisting of persistent recruitment shortfalls and poor retention, stemming from lingering issues such as inadequate housing and low morale.
The latter is particularly galling. Many soldiers cite poor living conditions, limited career advancement opportunities, and burnout as reasons for not making the Army a long-term career.
To cite just one example of the poor living conditions, troops stationed at 4 Canadian Division Support Base Petawawa (commonly referred to as Garrison Petawawa) in Ontario report that rising rents in the surrounding area force many to commute long distances or live in inadequate on-base housing, further straining morale.
Student of the Advance Small Arms Instructor (ASAI) conducted a range with M-203 grenade luncher, C16 Automatic Grenade Luncher, C6 light machine gun and Carl Gustav 84mm anti-tank. These photos were taken at the Infantry School, 5th Canadian Division Support Base (5 CDSB) Gagetown, New Brunswick, on 31 October 2024.
Substandard recruiting campaigns certainly don’t help. Unlike the militaries of key Canadian allies such as the United States (which has the “I Am An American Soldier” TV advert, wherein the Soldier’s Creed is resoundingly recited) and fellow Commonwealth member Australia, Canada’s Army recruitment messaging fails to emphasize patriotism and career development. It lacks coherence and fails to resonate with Canadian youth.
When it comes to inadequate Canadian Army equipment, a prime example is the Light Armored Vehicle, built by General Dynamics Land Systems – Canada—a London, Ontario-based subsidiary of General Dynamics. Although the LAV is undergoing the LAV III Upgrade Project, these vehicles are insufficient against adversaries equipped with advanced drones and precision-guided munitions.
To see how Canada stacks up to NATO allies, one need only take a look at Poland, formerly a Warsaw Pact adversary. The Polish Land Forces have invested heavily in modern weapons systems such as HIMARS, while their Canadian counterparts remain stuck in “hurry up and wait” mode.
It’s Not Just the Army
The Army is not the only branch of the Canadian Armed Forces that is being hollowed out.
The Royal Canadian Air Force is theoretically the third-largest air force in the Americas. Yet an internal National Defence military readiness report noted that only about 40 percent of the 406 airframes in its fleet could be considered “serviceable” as of early 2025.
Two Canadian Forces, 410 Squadron CF-188B Multi-Role Fighters, one painted in special anniversary colors, flying over the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) for planned engagements during the Tiger Meet of the Americas. The Inaugural Tiger Meet of the Americas brought together flying units from throughout North America that have a Tiger or large cat as their unit symbol. The Tiger Meet of the Americas closely mirrors the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)/Europe Tiger Meet in its goal of fostering camaraderie, teamwork and tactics familiarization.
Where to From Here?
One can only hope that NATO’s recent agreement—with the notable exception of recalcitrant Spain—to U.S. President Donald Trump’s longstanding insistence that member nations boost defense spending to 5 percent of GDP will result in a windfall that benefits the Canadian Army and Air Force enough to resuscitate these time-honored services from their near-moribund status.
It also remains to be seen if Canada’s newish Minister of National Defense, David McGuinty, will be willing and able to display the same level of commitment toward improving acquisition processes that his American counterpart, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, is proactively demonstrating.
And there is at least one additional glimmer of hope in the meantime: Recruitment is at a ten-year high, as nearly 7,000 new troops joined between August 2024 and August 2025.
Time will tell.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the newly published book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”
