I have seen that is one of the types under consideration, but I have a few reasons to think it is poorly suited to the stated goals of the procurement as I have read it.

• It is a coastal defence boat, it is roughly 1/2 the tonnage of the KSS-III type from Korea. This limits it’s capabilities in the large patrol areas Canada is looking to operate. Being designed to operate primarily in the Baltic and other bodies of water off European coasts, it is less well adapted to the large expanses of the Pacific, where Canada will be looking for deployments.

-While the technology transfer is a positive value for the potential contract, my understanding is that Korea is also open to this type of structure. More importantly, from my reading of the procurement, the goal is to focus on an “off-the-shelf” approach. The focus will be on acquiring vessels rapidly from the existing manufacturer with minimal specific changes for Canadian service. Hanwa Ocean, the builder, has moved over the past months to begin working with Canadian partners to get the process underway https://babcockcanada.com/babcock-and-hanwha-ocean-sign-a-technical-cooperation-agreement-for-the-canadian-patrol-submarine-project/ . This readiness to move quickly could shave years off the time needed to get the first hull in service.

-Due to it’s smaller size and coastal defence role, the type 214 does not have VLS on board. This is a significant miss in capability, I have some armchair geopolitical reasons for that which I’ll blather about in a moment, but generally this limits the mission types the submarine can accomplish. It would likely lead to Canada deploying ROK developed cruise and ballistic missiles giving the boats a whole new mission envelope that would allow greater impact if supporting shore defences against landing for example.

Into the “just my opinion man” section, or the even more of my opinion I guess! We are at a transitional state in Canada, and it’s a state we share most closely with our allies in the Pacific. It isn’t possible to ignore the recent SCOTUS ruling in the US. After listening to federal lawyers, and seeing the dissenting views from the justices, America is only a democracy insofar as nobody is currently using the unrestricted personal authority granted by the highest court. Continuing to base our sovereignty and continued liberal democracy on the support of a nation in that political situation is very shortsighted. ROK and Japan are two other nations that may be feeling a similar concern. Without a large entity and a geographical cluster like the EU to rely on, we are nations that have over-relied on the US for protection, that always has come at a cost of policy pressure and whatnot, but how will that pressure be wielded going forward? As a platform, the KSS-III type allows for options in the future which may seem very far away or outside of the Canadian mindset. Ultimately, it is a stealthy patrol submarine, which in a geopolitical pinch, can provide Canada with the only continuously effective deterrence known to prevent loss of sovereignty. Canada helped develop nuclear weapons, and operated them until 1984. In my opinion the world is moving in a direction that could leave us very alone and vulnerable to multiple larger authoritarian states, we could ramp up and spend billions to equip more units and build defences, but none of that brings us to parity. Citizens in ROK recently responded to polling indicating a majority support the development of nuclear deterrent there. Obviously I don’t think this will happen, but I do think that Canada would be very wise to acquire systems going forward that diversify our sources away from potentially untrustworthy nations. Also, keep options open. Shit’s not going well.

As far as I can tell the KSS-III class of subs from ROK would be the frontrunner. Last year Babcock, the company that provides maintenance for our current subs, signed a contract to cooperate on the deal with Hanwa Ocean. It’s one of the best conventional subs, it has 6xVLS with the next block stretched and supposed to feature 10xVLS. Also, it’s in production, which could mean relatively quick turnaround once they were ordered. The fact that it can deploy the Hyunmoo 4-4 ballistic missile is also a pretty big deal. If Canada were to be faced with a hypothetical scenario of a powerful belligerent dictatorship, stealthy submarines with ballistic missiles could provide interesting options for credible deterrence.

I carry an emergency $50 with me and I haven’t had to use it in a few years. I do not miss change jangling in my pocket.

We could also use the descriptor, “anti-genocide” for these protests, but that’s a bit on the nose I guess.

I’m referring to the push by Christian fundamentalism to implement Project 2025. It would functionally result in a dictatorship guided by religious zealots. That’s why the comparison to Iran. Canada is in a very precarious position these days, unless you’re fond of joining in with the dissolution of democracy and human rights that is advancing pretty relentlessly down south.

random article about it from a couple years ago

We can only hope that the disintegration of global politics, and the formation of a Christian version of Iran on our border will drive defense reform.

“…and receives well compensated board position at random corporation.”

The wailing of hedge fund managers and the minions of the super rich is what lets us know the government is doing the right thing.

Shocking, the super-rich warning the economy will collapse if they aren’t allowed to become utra-rich (as quickly as they can now).

If the criteria for declaring a state military organization as terrorists, is abuses of international humanitarian convention and the rules of war, then the Revolutionary Guard can pop onto the list along with the IDF. And a bunch of others really. Calling groups and people terrorists is pretty popular these days, but the word actually has a legitimate use, which isn’t to ratify Israeli acts of war against other sovereign nations. Even if, like Israel, those nations are run by shit heads.

This is the reality of what’s going on, the mainstream outlets aren’t quite able to bring themselves to say it out loud. Any other nation but Israel and the sanctions would be ramping up, but here we are, still wondering if this is the atrocity that means we should stop shipping weapons to them.

Well, Canada is a vast country with only 40 million people in it. Honestly pretty much everything said in the article is pretty reasonable. If you read through he points out the economic benefits of a growing population, but cautions that there needs to be a coordinated build-out of housing, transit, and social infrastructure like childcare. It’s not really anything crazy. The article was put out in 2019 and states a population of 37 million, it’s 2024 and we’ve ticked past 41 million. It’s more or less on track, except for all that infrastructure of course.

We’re at least having the argument. America and the EU are just shipping the weapons, business as usual. It’s perhaps more useful to support efforts to clean up our arms export system rather than imply it doesn’t matter because “historical human rights offences”. Every nation has darkness (more or less) but export reform feels like progress.

Interested to know when the got the PL VAR officials ruling on police video evidence. We looked at the footage, there was no knee on the neck. Beg pardon? Which footage?

Regarding the designation of “intelligence chief” there may be no error. The RCMP runs an internal program called CIP or Criminal Intelligence Program. It’s purpose is to collate, analyze, prioritize, and action information gathered across the country related to criminal investigation and activity. This type of setup is necessary to coordinate enforcement between regions and local jurisdictions. The FBI and Scotland Yard are similar in role. It doesn’t say specifically but I’m thinking this would be where this guy was located.

Deep defense cuts, now? That’s certainly one way to approach a destabilising great power neighbour, a new cold war, and an ongoing peer conflict in Ukraine.

What I generally got from their policy is that, while it qualifies objectively as terrorism, they do not decide that internally. They communicate the label as assigned by governments and other authorities. It’s a very reasoned policy as journalists can quickly become editorialists if they start inserting their own conclusions.

I don’t think the opinion that the Hamas attack was an act of terror has been obfuscated at all.

I always thought it had more to do with how the center/left are concerned about policy content and how it will affect systems and society, making decision making more complex and creating fragmentation. The right trends to compete by creating target groups or issues and uniting votes behind attacking them.

Perhaps provide some air superiority to back up those suggestions of force concentration?

I looked into it a bit, found a version of Fedora called Nobara. I bought a second m.2 drive and installed it. I almost never boot Win 10 anymore. The only gaming issue I have is anti-cheat not supporting it, come on Marauders, you look cool and I want to play. Also, some modding in things like TESV is a journey. Honestly though, simply using my rig feels better, faster, leaner. Gaming is great, Nobara has a setup wizard for my nVidia card as well as my XBox controller. It really isn’t hard to switch, I just thought it would be before I tried.

There’s bugs and glitches I’ve had to troubleshoot, but whenever I find myself annoyed, I just think about how many glitches and issues I had with Windows. Nothing is perfect, but Linux gaming is pretty good.