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Big moves are afoot on the federal military procurement file – and not a moment too soon.

Of the dizzying array of rusted-out Canadian Forces gear that must be replaced with varying degrees of urgency, two big-ticket items have dominated; new ships for the Royal Canadian Navy and Coast Guard, and new fighters for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

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On both fronts, according to a senior defence industry source, the Liberal government is gearing up for moves it hopes will break the logjam. “They’re now where the former government was in June of 2015,” said the source. “Basically there’s a realization that what they’ve been doing isn’t working.”

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A procurement workforce that lost a huge amount of capacity during the 1990s grew only marginally during the 2000s, and was then hammered by Harper’s attempts to balance the books. At the same time, longstanding problems defining and communicating military requirements and costing projects persisted, and new, more onerous policies regarding investment planning and managing major projects were introduced, which meant that procuring military equipment took more time and effort.

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