Canadian Forces to stand up 1 Canadian Division

So this has been called upon in pretty much every major conflict we have been in but keeps disapearing. Yet they are bringing it back after Afghanistan, are we suppose to applaud this or what? Being it's most likely just going to repeat history.

Meh as far as I can tell its just going to be another posting for officers, I doubt they are going to have anything close to a real division.

Give it a couple years and some whistlehead looking for a check mark under planning will re-org and delete it. Again.

Edit: So does this mean the Div will conduct collective training? Who pays and how often?

While it would be nice to be able to conduct division level operations I am somewhat skeptical of this. First why is this new command being located at CFB Kingston? Kingston lacks the training area to conduct division level maneuvers. Not to mention there are no combat units in Kingston. The nearest is in Petawawa. Are they even going to conduct division exercises? If so where? Are they going to bring brigades from all over the country to one base for training? If so where is the money for that coming from? And why isn't the Division HQ located there? If no division training is done then we might as well not even have a division because the HQ will have no idea what it is doing on real operations without training experience.

I'm all for developing Division level operational capabilities but if we do so we should do it right. Make sure there is the budget and training opportunities necessary to develop and maintain these capabilities. I also don't want to see this implemented at the expense of the Navy and Air Force that are having budget issues.

I think this is mainly going to on paper, since to have a actual division it would consume around 20% - 15% of the CF.

I think this is mainly going to on paper, since to have a actual division it would consume around 20% - 15% of the CF.

Paper formation no doubt there. Big boys (US, Russia, UK, Germany, etc.) have deployable division level formations. I don't see us going there.

Seems pretty clear from News Release that it's the bureaucratic end of a Division and little else. It's designed to be capable of taking Command of a large International Force, such as in a theatre like Afghanistan. Even if that is all it does and it gets some successful experience, it is still an Asset for the CF. Manpower is one thing, but it is nothing without proper Command. This establishes some Command capability that may or may not be needed within the CF. It is much better to have than not to have though.

This is sort of what the US Army does. There are many divisions and even a couple whole Armies that exist on paper only with all of the 'assigned' officers working in other taskings. But in the event of a war they can dial up a command structure in short order to take command of activated National Guard and Reserve units.

It'll just "round up" all the odds n sods units out there that were orphaned when Div was dissolved last time. I suspect that this is the mechanism the Army is using to keep the staff skill sets relearned from A'stan alive for the future. Hopefully the sheer stupidity of allowing critical skill sets to lapse due to "peace dividend" type thinking within the Army is out for good.

As for it being deployable, the proof of that will come if they spool up an RV type Ex.