Photo: Joint Task Force-Ukraine AK02-2019-0010-030
By Scott Taylor
The military procurement system in Canada is constantly making headlines for multi-year delays and multi-billion dollar cost over-runs on major combat platforms.
For many a casual observer of the Canadian Armed Forces, the very scope of these purchasing boondoggles defies comprehension by the average layperson. Civilians do not normally buy cutting edge weaponry and then factor in the life-cycle costs of maintaining that weapon.
Hence the news that the federal government is in the midst of a plan to build 15 Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) frigates for the Royal Canadian Navy, at a projected cost of over $100 billion, with the delivery of the first ship not slated until 2032, barely warrants a single 'harrumph' from the ordinary taxpayer: It is simply incomprehensible.
However, every once in a while a media story breaks regarding a military purchase that can clearly resonate with the average Canadian citizen. In mid-September CBC reporter Murray Brewster filed a story headlined "Canadian Army says new military sleeping bags not suitable for 'typical Canadian winter'.
Only the year before, the Department of National Defence had announced a $34.8 million purchase of what they term the General Purpose Sleeping Bag System, or GPSBS to use the military acronym. According to the GPSBS team spokesperson, Andre Legault, this purchase was "about making sure we have everything the soldier needs to be able to perform in Iraq in the summer, all the way up to the high Arctic in the winter." Given that Iraq's summer temperatures hover around 50 degrees Celsius, the GPSBS in that circumstance would simply need to keep the user warm in whatever temperature to which they set their air conditioner.
Thus what Legault was really defining was the conditions in the high Arctic in winter. Turns out that the DND procurement officials over-egged the pudding on that particular claim.
In a late November 2023 exercise in Ram Falls Provincial Park, Alberta, 350 members of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry spent several days trialling the new GPSBS. Although the nighttime temperatures did get as low as -20 degrees Celsius, these PPCLI soldiers were sleeping in tents with stove heaters. Despite using both the inner and outer layers of the GPSBS, soldiers reported 'critical issues' with the new sleeping bags. Namely that they were still cold.
At the end of the exercise, the 3PPCLI Quartermaster deemed that the new GPSBS were "better suited for use in weather conditions that are characteristic of late Spring or early Fall" and not "for typical Canadian winter conditions nor the extreme cold of Alaska'. As 3 PPCLI was soon scheduled to head to Alaska to conduct joint training with the US military, it was requested that they be issued with the Canadian Army's old 1965 pattern sleeping bags for that particular exercise.
For those of us of a certain generation (I served in the PPCLI from 1982 -1986) it will be fondly recalled that those sleeping bags were probably the most popular piece of kit that we carried. It would keep you warm at -60 degrees and the biggest drawback was you never had enough down-time inside that bag.
Which begs the question, how is it possible that procurement officials in 2023 cannot match what was done in 1965?
If one divides the GPSBS' $34.8 million price tag by 45,502 - the total number of soldiers in Canada's Army and Army Reserve- those sleeping bag systems cost roughly $765 each. Anyone who camps in the winter will realize that you can get a top of the line, Austrian- manufactured sleeping bag rated for the 'high Arctic in mid-Winter' for a retail price of just $425.
So, just like when our old Army rain gear that was 'water-resistant' rather than 'water repellant' (there is a big difference), and the ridiculous recent acquisition of 90 open-topped, GM Defense Canada un-armoured tactical dune buggies for the Canadian Battle Group in Latvia, it would seem that the tradition of Canadian Army gear being purchased by those who will never use it continues unabated.
